Demon of Elgon
by GaboonViper
Summary: About 8 months after the defeat of the first, Xander and Willow are running a slayer school in Africa. The town, despite not having a hellmouth anywhere near it, has a high vampire population. That can't be good, can it? Sequel to 'The Eye of Xander'.
1. Orphan

**Summary:**

About 8 months after the defeat of the first, Xander and Willow are running a slayer school in Africa. The town, despite not having a hellmouth anywhere near it, has a high vampire population. That can't be good, can it? Sequel to 'The Eye of Xander'.

**Spoilers:**

All seasons

**Rating:**

T-rating(13+)

If you're allowed to see the show, you should be allowed to read this. Violence and swearing are kept to the same levels as in the show or lower.

**Disclaimer:**

I don't own a bass-guitar. I don't have a job. I don't own any chips, 'cause I ate them all. Am I forgetting something here?

**Author's notes:**

This is the sequel to 'The Eye of Xander'. It's recommended that you read that story first, though it's not a requirement. The story takes place sometime after season 7.

**Chapter 1: Orphan**

Sister Agnes switched her gaze between the letters she had gotten from the Kenyan authorities and a company called WCI, and the two visitors, who were quite possibly the strangest people she had ever met. On the left sat a young African woman clad in clothes that barely did anything to cover her body. Yet for all the attention she brought to herself with her clothes or rather lack thereof, she hadn't spoken a single word.

On the right sat a dark haired young man. He had a patch covering his left eye, and his clothes, though they at least performed their function of covering the body, didn't look very professional at all. He, unlike the woman, was chattering away with jokes that were not very appropriate at all, but he seemed suitably embarrassed about it.

It wasn't that she hadn't seen any people with similar clothes or attitudes. It was the fact that the man and woman were supposed to be the head and his assistant of an upstanding private school founded by the WCI, at least according to the letters and identification she had received.

"And exactly why are you interested in having Sera Peters attend your school, Mr. Harris?"

Interested was a bit of an understatement. They had not only offered Sera a place at their school, which had three Oxford graduates professing there. They also offered her a place to sleep, food and even a modest weekly allowance for anything else the young girl would need. And once she graduated at their school she would receive a scholarship to attend any college she wished to attend. All of this was free of charge.

"The WCI is a bit stretched thin at the moment. They have enough money to rebuild everything they lost when their headquarters blew apart because of that gass-leak-thingy, but they lack the specialized personnel. So they're hoping to attract some by funding their education."

"They? Are you not employed by the WCI?"

"Er...yeah I am, but only recently. I'm not real comfortable just yet with calling them _'we'_"

"And miss Peters is not required to end up working with the WCI?"

"Nope. We're hoping we can persuade her to, but there will be no requiring or forcing involved whatsoever."

Sister Agnes nodded. It all seemed just a bit too good to be true, but really, there was little choice. The limited funds the St. Peters orphanage received was barely enough to keep on going as it was. If Sera was going to attend this school, it meant that another orphan could be taken care of even though Sera would still remain under her guardianship. Besides, she was going to visit the young girl regularly to make sure she was taken care of.

"Would you like to see her now?"

"Yes, very much."

* * *

Xander eyed the girl closely. She looked so young and she was young. At the age of eleven she was the youngest slayer in Africa, that they knew about anyway. Her blonde hair barely reached his chest. It was unbelievable that this girl was several times stronger than the average adult.

"You must be miss Peters." Xander stated.

Sera looked at him with curious assessment.

"Just Sera, I don't have a last name." she replied.

Xander nodded in understanding. Last names referred to parents. Something Xander was all to familiar with. He wasn't too fond of his own parents, especially his father, and as a result he still winced everytime he was called by the name of 'Mr. Harris' even though he really didn't have any contact with them. Sera didn't have any parents. Those who had abandoned her hadn't even left her their name. It's why she was registered as Sera Peters. Her last name simply referred to the orphanage.

"I'm Xander."

He stuck out his hand and the young girl shook it firmly. Then he looked around to take in the room. There were six beds and three reasonably large closets, but other than that there was pretty much nothing. The beds were all made neatly and pretty much looked the same with their grey covers.

Sera was still looking curiously at him. It didn't seem like she had made her mind up about him, but if she was scared at all, she didn't look it. Xander wasn't sure how to begin. He hadn't done this too often and usually when he did, he was talking to someone closer his age, someone who's reactions he could better anticipate.

"So, Sera. Have you ever heard of vampires?"

In the next 10 minutes Xander explained about vampires, demons and vampire slayers. He didn't go deep into details, but enough for the young girl to get a basic idea of what was going on.

"You probably noticed that you have become stronger, it's because you are a slayer. That's why I'm here."

Xander watched the young slayer, who had been listening. Though she had occasionally looked surprised and mystified, she hadn't interrupted him at all. Nor seemed there be any indication she thought he was making it all up.

"There's a school in Kisumu, Kenya where we train slayers. I'm here to invite you to attend it."

"Yes." Sera smiled brightly.

Xander looked at her in astonishment. This young girl had so readily accepted everything he had told her. So far every time Xander explained a slayer about vampires and demons, she was disbelieving and demanded proof, and even after they got proof they didn't really believe him. On the other hand, all those slayers had been several years older.

"Are you sure?" he asked.

"Yes." She returned with a determination that rivaled Willow's 'resolved face'. Then she added with an even wider smile. "I'm going to be a superhero."

Xander returned her infectious smile. This recruitment was going better than he had hoped for.

"Speaking of superheroes..." He opened his backpack, fished out something between the stakes, holy water and other weapons and handed it to Sera. The young slayer looked at it and her eyes lit up. The look on her face at the sight of the first edition of the Amazing Spider-man was indescribable. Xander couldn't remember the last time he had seen such a pure joyous expression, and that over a single comic book! Though, looking around the room it was obvious the girl didn't have much possessions, let alone comic books.

His smile vanished and he turned back to serious.

"Being a superhero isn't easy, you know. It will be difficult. Sometimes you will have to fight when you don't want to. Sometimes you won't win your fight and often you and other people will get hurt. It's a very dangerous job. And you won't be fighting for several years, we'll leave that to the older slayers."

Sera nodded, but hadn't changed her resolve.

"What about you? Are you a superhero too?"

Xander smiled sadly.

"No, I'm not. I don't have any superpowers. I'm just the guy who fixes things that are broken when another demon thrashes the house."

"What about your eye, what happened to it?"

The question took him off guard. He would have been angry or at least annoyed by it if it wasn't for the utter curiosity the girl showed. Usually when people asked, they showed him pity but without really seeming to care at all. Others just looked at the eye-patch with pity, but didn't ask at all. Which one was worse, Xander didn't know. This time he didn't mind explaining, he just didn't know how much of it to tell her.

"Eight months ago there was this really strong demon Caleb. He was much stronger than even slayers and he was guarding something called a Scythe, a powerful axe-like weapon only slayers can wield. We attacked him at an old vineyard he used as his base, but he was too strong. He knocked out Buffy, our most experienced slayer, in a single blow and everyone else was fighting these other demons, called Bringers. They weren't as tough, but there were a lot of them. I attacked Caleb, but I was no match for him. In that fight my eye got injured beyond repair."

"But you won in the end, right?"

"No we didn't, we lost. We fled before any more of us got injured. A few days later Buffy returned to the vineyard on her own. She took the Scythe and slayed Caleb with it."

"So, you're not a superhero, but a regular hero."

Xander felt amusement at the thought of a hero being called 'regular', he felt amused about _himself_ being called 'regular', but this was the first time he had been called a hero. He wasn't exactly sure how he felt about that. On the one hand being called a hero was flattering, but the simple fact remained that he wasn't one. A hero wouldn't have left his fiancée at the altar. A hero wouldn't loose sleep over a small thing as losing an eye. If he had been a hero, he wouldn't have frozen at the sight of the gun when Warren decided to try and kill Buffy with it. If he had been a hero, Tara would have been alive and Willow wouldn't be as messed up as she was.

"No, I'm not a hero."

"But you fight demons! If slayers who fight demons are superheroes then aren't regular people who fight them regular heroes?"

"I don't fight demons as much as that I get tossed around by them. Heck, most of the time, I'm the one who needs rescuing. I'm the damsel in distress, not the knight in shining armor."

Sera laughed at that and Xander in turn grinned. Then the young girl turned serious.

"Then why do you fight?"

For an eleven-year-old she sure knew how to ask the tough questions.

"Because I...I can't just sit around and do nothing, and in rare cases my blundering actually turns out to be useful."

Sera nodded and smiled, though for the life of him, Xander couldn't figure out why she was smiling.

The two of them spend another good part of an hour talking about Sera's life, her current school and the slayer school. Sera agreed to sleep on whether she was actually going to attend the slayer school. Xander found himself trying to impress some more of the negative side of being a slayer on her, but everything he said seemed only to strengthen her resolve. Usually he had to do the exact opposite to try to even get a slayer to check the school out.

As Xander and Meko left the orphanage to return to their motel room he reflected on how the 'recruitment' had gone. Sera was smart, that was certain. Not Willow-smart, the young girl didn't get straight A's at school, but she was perceptive and curious but careful. She had managed to surprise him 4 times in just a single conversation and with everything that Xander had seen there weren't many things that surprised him. Things at 'slayer high' were definitely going to be interesting with Sera around.

**Author's notes:**

Ok, I must say, Wow! This chapter came to me as a surprise, even though I wrote it myself. Originally Sera was going to be playing a small role, but now it seems that she's going to be one of the main characters together with Willow and Xander. Buffy, Giles and Dawn are going to be playing lesser roles and they won't really be appearing in the first few chapters.

Where as 'the Eye of Xander' was a story based on a single idea I had, 'Demon of Elgon' is going to be a mix of ideas, which will make the story longer. Also, while I have the big lines of the story in my head, I will be writing the chapters on the fly, whereas the previous story already had a first version written when I started posting chapters.


	2. Oak

**Chapter 2: Oak**

She ducked beneath the blow that would have otherwise connected to her nose, and at the same time swept the feet of her assailant from underneath him. While the vampire lay dazed on the ground she staked him through the heart and send him blowing in the wind. Sensing no immediate threat around her, she turned to where the others were fighting.

24 bloodsucking demons against a handful of teenage girls; the vampires never stood a chance. Their numbers dwindled as every few seconds another vamp turned into dust. Finally when there were only 10 left, they became smart, well smart_er_, and decided to make a run for it. They fled further into the building.

Marsha and her squad of slayers followed them to a room that had no other exits. Something was off here. Not only had the vampires fled, which was strange enough on its own, they had all fled into the same room with a single entrance/exit. She halted all slayers before they reached the room. These vampires were working together! One of the great advantages of a slayer was that they usually didn't.

She could sense that some of the vampires in the other room were placed in on strategic spots. If the slayers simply charged in, there would be the definite possibility of casualties. They needed a plan and perhaps some backup.

Just then it happened. A bright flash emanated from the room. Marsha carefully came closer to find out what was happening there. She watched from a safe distance and saw a purple glowing disc standing on end in the room. The vampires walked through it one by one and disappeared from her slayer sense. Another bright flash blinded her for a second. When her sight returned the glowing disc was gone and so were the vampires.

* * *

"You know, I distinctly remember _not_ having an Oak in my backyard." a voice interrupted her.

Willow opened her eyes and smiled at a frowning Xander. While he had been off to recruit another slayer, Willow had mostly been meditating in the backyard of Xander's house(though it was fast becoming her house as well). Unfortunately the backyard was pretty much just a rather wild lawn, so she had decided to change it, using her witchy powers to relocate plants from other parts of the world to here. Now it was a still rather wild lawn, but with a small garden in the center, currently housing a host of exotic plants and a large Oak and she was sitting in the midst of it. The plants and the tree made the spot a more balanced place and perfect for meditation.

"She's from Europe." Willow explained.

"Uh...what?"

"The tree is from Europe."

"Ah, pardonnez mois, mademoiselle."

"Greece."

"Well...I don't know any Greek, she'll just have to do with English. So, what's with the _she_? I know I mostly slept through biology class, but I'm still pretty sure trees don't have any gender."

Willow just shrugged. "She feels like a she."

"Okay... I'm just going to pretend I know what you are talking about."

Willow wasn't even sure herself about what it was that made the tree feel like a female. Perhaps a residu of the past life of the tree's soul. Of course if that theory was correct then that meant there had to be such a thing as reincarnation, which was still a heavily debated topic among witches.

Xander turned to the tree. "So, Greece huh? What's the weather there like?

"..."

"I see, you're the strong silent type. Or wait... is that a male thing? I mean, Buffy is strong and she sure isn't the silent type."

Willow chuckled at sight of Xander talking to a tree and really seeming serious about it. It was good to see him going at it with his jokes. When she first got here a couple of months ago he had been too silent. She had known Xander pretty much her whole life and a Xander who didn't joke every few minutes was a bad sign.

"How did the talk go?" she asked.

"Honestly, I'm not sure."

Willow looked at him in puzzlement. "What do you mean you're not sure? Did you get her to check out the school?"

"Actually, she already signed up for the whole package."

"Then what's the problem?"

Xander shook his head in frustration. "Sera is eleven! She's barely even a teenager. It just... feels wrong to drag her into this mess."

Willow sighed. He was right about that. No one deserved to live the kind of life that Buffy, Xander or herself had lead.

"She will be in this mess whether you drag her into it or not. Demons will come after her, they can sense the slayer essence within her. She needs the training to survive and at the school she'll be protected by three dozen other slayers, not to mention a witch and a bad-ass carpenter."

Xander failed to repress a smile at that last comment.

"I know that, but the demon activity in Cameroon is pretty much non-existent. She might have gone years without anyone of them noticing her. Instead we're making her part of the most delicious Demon-buffet on the continent!"

"If she doesn't get training she'll die at her first contact with a demon, do you want that? Maybe she can go a few years without demons, but do you think it will be like that for the rest of her life? I know it isn't fair and I wish we could reverse what happened, but we can't. If you want to give this girl a fighting chance, this is the best option." She returned firmly.

Willow had debated the subject in her head ever since she had done the spell that turned all potentials into slayers. She had tried to come up with more likeable solution, but there simply wasn't one.

Xanders expression softened as he looked at her.

"It's not your fault, you know. Buffy came up with the plan, and the rest of us agreed with it. If we hadn't done the spell then we wouldn't be here and noone else would be here either."

Willow nodded. She knew he was right, but knowing it and feeling it were two completely different things.

Xander sighed and sat down on the grass next to Willow, his back against the Oak. He took out a purple crystal beneath his eye-patch and relaxed. It was the crystal she had given him a couple of weeks ago for his birthday, which allowed him to sense aura's.

Initially he hadn't seemed to like it, but now he was wearing it as much as he could. She was glad about that. It made her feel she had helped him to accept the fate of his left eye. She hadn't been much of a friend over the last few years. Even before she became all occupied with Tara's death. She hadn't even noticed Xander's nervousness about his almost-wedding until just before he left Anya at the altar, and she was his best man! And in the hospital when she had tried to comfort him about loss of his eye, she had only made it worse by breaking down herself.

Now she wanted to make up for all that, become close to Xander again, not too close of course, because that only lead to illicit smoochies, bad break-ups and painful stomach wounds. No, she wanted the two of them to be the way they used to be, back before Buffy came to Sunnydale and everything changed: just two best friends who knew eachother better than themselves. She missed that almost as much as she missed Tara.

"Are you going to send the tree back to Greece when you're done?" he asked after a while.

"That would be a little weird."

"Why's that?"

"Well, imagine a field of trees cut down and ready for the sawmill, and a single tree standing on end in the midst of it."

"Huh?...Oh." He grinned in understanding. "Willow Rosenberg, champion of the green and pure, saved the Oak from the cruel fate of butts, food stains and possibly the traumatic experience of having to feel old people going at it."

Willow shuddered at the thought and nodded solemnly.

"Well, that's good cause I'm starting to like Ms. Oak here." He said while patting the tree. "So, you wanna come and meet our newest addition to the giggle squad?"

Willow rolled her eyes at his newest nickname for the slayers at the school and nodded. Xander hadn't made this much of a fuss about any of the other slayers. She was eager to see the young girl who he had so quickly taken a liking to.

**Author's notes:**

Another week, another chapter. This chapter was finished in a bit of a rush, since tomorrow I'll be off to Mallorca to embrace the sun, not literally cause that would be painful. That means, instead of sitting here behind my computer screen writing, I'll be there writing with the old-fashioned pen and paper. I won't be able to post any chapters, or read any mail next week, so you'll have to wait two weeks for the next one.

Anyway as I said, this chapter was a bit rushed, I hope you'll like it anyway. Please review, I'll be looking forward to your opinions!


	3. Slayer school

**Chapter 3: Slayer school**

Metal clanged against rock as his soldiers were carving out more of the cave. Progress was slow, but General Flavius Aetius was a patient man. Okay, maybe not a man anymore, but he was patient nonetheless. After all, it had taken him centuries just to find this place.

Finding the resting place of the Demon however, had been the easy part. The hard part was finding decent soldiers for the army he needed. Oh how sometimes he longed the days when he commanded legions of strong and disciplined men! But times had changed. He had changed. Normal humans wouldn't even think of following him now that he was half demon. Besides, ordinary humans weren't really strong enough.

The brink of his current, although meager army consisted of vampires. Vampires! He shook his head in disgust. The lowest ranking demons on the planet. Unfortunately it was all he could find. Other demonic species usually had their own agenda or weren't particularly interested in following someone else. Vampires weren't much better, but they were plentiful and easily to control through fear and their lust for blood. They were also arrogant, foolish and brainless, so confident of their own powers they often even died at the hands of ordinary humans.

His thoughts were interrupted by Dalton, the most loyal of his vampires. He'd better have a good reason for this.

"Sir, general, sir!" He exclaimed while saluting with an embarrassing clumsiness. _'he is loyal!'_ the general reminded himself to calm down. _'Incompetent, but loyal!'_

"What is it!" he snapped back.

The lowlife cowered at the general's anger, but to his credit, was quickly able to compose himself.

"It's the base sir! It's been raided!"

General Aetius frowned at this. Who was bold or stupid enough to raid a large vampire base and skilled enough to pull it off?

"Rivals?"

"No sir, Slayers!"

He frowned again. While he had recently heard rumors of the existence of a second slayer, he had never given much weight to them. Every book on slayers he had ever read indicated that there was only one. But if there was anything he had learned in the 16 centuries of his life, it was that things changed.

"How many?"

"Six, sir!"

"Casualties?"

Dalton paused. Clearly afraid the answer would anger the general. Flavius smiled at that. His subordinates feared him more than he had intended. He was after all never one to work his frustrations out on the messenger. Besides, it wasn't like he wouldn't be able to replace any casualties.

"Ei-eighteen on our side...none on theirs."

The general nodded thoughtfully. From the stories he had read on the exploits of slayers who acted on their own, there was no doubt six of them could pull such a feat. In fact, he was surprised there were survivors at all. Eighteen casualties meant that 10 vampires had lived. Perhaps his attempts to try and drill some discipline into them had payed off after all.

"Where are the survivors?"

"They are being questioned as we speak, sir."

"Good. Execute them and everyone who has heard their story. If word on the raid gets out it'll be on your head."

If his soldiers learned of the raid, some of them might just decide it was not worth the risk to work for the general. And if word got out even further, recruiting new soldiers might become a problem. That certainly wouldn't do.

Dalton gulped audibly, saluted again and disappeared quickly.

General Aetius paced towards the office of his speculatores, a team of demons that served as his military intelligence. The news he had received wasn't good at all. If there were indeed slayers in Kisumu, they could pose a problem to his task. Slayers were notoriously difficult to kill and that was when there was just one! If there was a group of slayers, he'd need to every single scrap of information there was about them.

* * *

Sera looked around the room with wide eyes. This was now _her_ room! When Mr. Xander showed her in, he just treated it like it was nothing special. Sure, it only held a single bed, a bedside table and a large closet. It also was only about the same size as her room at the orphanage. The thing was that this room was _hers_. She didn't share it with 5 other kids. Although Mr. Xander said that if things were getting crowded in the school, she might have to share it with another slayer, but according to him that wasn't likely to happen for several years.

Sera opened the bag that held her worldly possessions. Everything in there could fit in a single compartment of her new closet. What on earth was she going to do with the rest of all that space? She decided to put something in each compartment, just so none of them were left out. A compartment with nothing in it was, after all, wasted space.

When Sera was done unpacking she took out one last item from her bag. It was the comic book Mr. Xander had given her: The Amazing Spider-man 1. She had only read it 5 times, so she decided to make it 6. She liked the comic book because Peter Parker was in a similar situation as her. Like him, she had superpowers and couldn't tell anyone about it, except other slayers and people like mr. Xander who already knew about it. And Xander did say she could tell sister Agnes if she wanted to, but she didn't think her guardian would allow her to become a superhero if she learned about how dangerous it was.

A good 15 minutes later Sera heard a noise outside her room. She was about to see what it was when the door swung open and Mr. Xander entered with a large cart. He bowed to her with a huge grin on his face.

"Delivery service for milady Sera."

Sera smiled as the one-eyed man started rummaging through the stuff in the cart. Xander could be such a goof sometimes.

"Let's see, what prizes has the lady won...Ahah! A brand new and shiny... alarm clock!" He exclaimed, lifting the trinket in the air like it was the world cup. He put the clock down on the bed-side table and pulled out a bag that was similar to her own bag, although a bit more modern and less worn out.

"A bag of stakes and holy water for all your slaying needs!"

He continued pulling items from the cart each one with as much enthusiasm as the others and slowly the room filled up. Among the presents Sera received were a couple of collapsible chairs, a small table, an old stereo with a couple of Cd's and some clothes, most of which were probably a few sizes to big for her though. All she could do was watch with a silent 'wow'.

"I see you like the book I gave you."

Sera nodded enthusiastically.

"Well, then you probably like these as well." He smiled and pulled out a stack of at least a dozen comics. They were all episodes of the Amazing Spider-man. "The first one I gave you is yours, but these are from my personal collection, so be careful with them. I don't want to have to rebuild my collection again. Anyway, if you're ready I'll take you on the grand tour."

"Okay." she returned absently as she went through the stack of comics, checking the front pages to determine which to read first.

"So, are you coming?"

Sera looked up at Xander and just realized what she had agreed to. Ah well, she could read the comics later.

* * *

They had lunch at the school cafeteria. It wasn't like a regular cafeteria, because at a regular one you probably weren't allowed to bake your own bacon and eggs. Here, it was a requirement, since there was no cook. Xander made her a few sandwiches and showed her how to bake eggs.

It was pretty good, because Sera ended up devouring a full eight sandwiches and she had already had four at breakfast!

After lunch they went on towards the gym. The gym wasn't regular either. No school gym Sera had ever heard of had this many swords, staffs, crossbows and regular bows in the storage area. Xander explained that nearly half of Sera's classes were going to be martial arts classes. Since Sera was new, she was going to be thought by Xander himself. Once she became advanced enough she would join the other slayers who trained under the senior slayers Marsha and Meko. This saddened the young slayer a bit. Meko hadn't so much a said a single word to Sera, even though she had the chance a couple of times. Plus, the African slayer always looked angry. Marsha greeted Sera when Xander introduced her, but the black haired senior slayer didn't pay much attention at all and she was very bossy against the other girls. No, Sera quickly decided that she wanted to be trained by Mr. Xander. Even after she knew the basics. How she was going to make sure of that, she didn't know yet, but she had a lot of time to think about that.

Marsha and Meko weren't the only people Sera had met at the school. There was also Perry, a blond man with glasses. He had trouble talking, because he stuttered a lot. But he seemed nice, not like those men in those weird suits. _'Tweeds' _Xander called them. Those Tweeds acted towards her like she was still in pre-school. Hey, she was eleven, not six! Then there was Ms. Willow. She was nice too, and Xander's best friend, so of course she was nice. She looked a little sad though, the way Mr. Xander sometimes looked and she felt wrong somehow.

She asked Xander about that, since she didn't think it would be nice to ask Willow herself, not when she was sad. Sera had a feeling the sadness and the wrongness from the red-headed woman were related. Xander just told her that Willow had some problems with magic. Yes, Ms. Willow was a witch! She even showed some magic by making a couple of books fly around her. That was really cool!

Anyway, to Sera's delight, Xander decided to show her some basic moves at the gym. She learned how to do the basic kicking and punching and later he even showed her how to use the crossbow. Sera thought she did pretty well there, as she managed to hit the bullseye twice after only about 10 minutes of practice. Even some of the other slayers at the gym commented on her skill.

Just as Xander was about to show another punch, Perry interrupted them.

"X-Xander. M-m-meeting in ten. I-it's about the pa-patrol y-yesterday." He stuttered nervously.

Xander nodded. "Thanks Perr. Could you get Willow for me? She should be in room 0-12."

"Willow?" Perry returned surprised. "B-bu-but s-she is not r-realy, I-I mean wha-what about T-Tra..."

"No, Travers won't like it," Xander interrupted "but considering what I've heard of last night's patrol I'm pretty sure we are going to need Willow's help on this one."

Perry nodded and quickly left, leaving Xander sunken in thought. Sera was trying to figure out what that was all about. What was going on with Willow? And why was it that Travers, who she knew was one of the Tweeds, didn't like Willow?

"I'm sorry Sera, but I have to go. It shouldn't take more than an hour. You can keep practicing with the crossbow if you like. I'm sure that by the time I get back, you'll be splitting arrows in two like Robin Hood." Xander grinned at her proudly.

Sera blushed at that. She couldn't believe that Xander was basically the principal of her new school. Principals were supposed to be stuffy old men, not funny, young and carrying an eye-patch.

**Author's notes:**

I bit of a tough chapter for me, this one. It's not easy to write from the point of view of an eleven year old girl. Luckily I have some amazing cousins, who are about the same age, so I drew some inspiration from my experiences with them. Here's to hoping it came out alright.

I know the story is still going slow, but that should change in the coming chapters. So keep reading and tell me what you think of everything so far.


	4. Meeting

**Chapter 4: Meeting**

General Aetius looked at the report with dismay. It wasn't that the report was bad or incomplete. The information in it wasn't lacking at all. It was as detailed as he expected from commander Victor. He knew how to work surveillance better than anyone in this dimension. No, what bothered him was the contents. About 30 slayers, a powerful witch, a handful of unknowns and their leader who went by the name of Alexander Harris. All of them had settled in Kisumu, the African city closest to his current location. The only thing that was somewhat comforting was the fact that Buffy Summers nor any other well-known slayers were among the ones in Kisumu.

Still, they were a threat to his expedition. A threat he had to neutralize long enough for him to complete extracting the Demon and bring it back to the Emperor. Attacking the Slayers in an all-out assault would result into too many casualties on his side and didn't even guarantee victory. Also, he needed a large part of his army to control the Demon when it was time to extract it. Eliminating the slayers one by one, would take to long and wouldn't do enough damage to the threat. It also could prompt an attack against him.

The only sensible option was one of the oldest tricks in the book: Assassinate the enemy general to demoralize the troops and put his army into disarray. This would probably buy Flavius the time he needed. The only question was how would he go about doing it?

General Alexander Harris was an ordinary human. Still, Flavius didn't want to underestimate the man. Alexander looked like a seasoned warrior, with the scars on his face and the eye-patch. Yet he was only 23 years old, according to his birth certificate. To be put in a vital position at such a young age was rare to say the least. Furthermore, rumours had it that he had fought side by side with a slayer who was already more famous than any other slayer in history: Buffy Summers.

Strangely enough there was a distinct lack of security around General Harris. Possibly because he had only recently been promoted to General and was still settling in. And there weren't many real threats out there at the moment, so he didn't have any reason to expect trouble. The only real obstacle was that he lived in the same house as the witch Willow Rosenberg, who was also possibly his wife. Still, General Harris was alone quite often and regularly so the witch wasn't going to be a problem.

Now all General Flavius Aetius needed was a competent assassin.

* * *

Xander entered the meeting room and was immediately greeted by a glare from the base's main watcher. Of course, Xander was now a member of the Watcher's Council himself, but he didn't see himself as a watcher. He never had the proper training or skills. No, the main watcher around here was Stuart Travers. He was the spitting image of his late father, except younger. It wasn't just superficial likeness. The man had the same ambitions and 'moral' values and he could piss Xander off with no more than a look.

Travers was flanked by two other watchers. They weren't Travers lackeys or anything, well at least Robinson wasn't, Xander wasn't too sure about McMannon. At least neither of them were as bad as Travers, they just seemed more comfortable around their fellow Brits. So the three of them usually hung out together, drinking tea and doing all that other British stuff like reading books and having intellectual conversations.

The rest of the group consisted of the two senior slayers: Marsha and Nonyameko. They were the only slayers in the building who had a significant amount of training before they received their powers and therefore the ones in charge of training the others.

Then there was Perry, Xander's personal assistant. He was pretty handy with the computer and smart as well. Perry had only recently come in contact with the supernatural. His parents had been brutally murdered by a handful of demons, who were after his little slaying sister Pauline. When the new Watcher's Council took in Pauline, Perry was left with nowhere to go. He wanted to stay with his sister to take care of her, but those oh-so-useful Council rules prevented it. So, Xander offered Perry the job to circumvent those rules and he hadn't had a single reason to regret his decision. With Perry doing most of the more tedious paperwork, Xander was able to concentrate on actually running the slayer base.

Last, but not least, there was the crazy Shaman Mzee, resident expert on Magic. Xander tended to avoid the old man, because a conversation with Mzee really did nothing more than to leave behind a very confused carpenter.

Xander motioned for everyone to sit around the large square wooden table and the meeting began.

"For those of you who don't know her:" He knew there was no need to introduce her, but he had promised Giles to follow procedures as much as possible. "This is Willow Rosenberg, she'll be participating in this meeting and possibly future meetings on..."

"Excuse me."

Xander didn't bother hide his sigh. Travers really liked interrupting him at these meetings. "Yes, Mr. Travers?"

"I beg your pardon, but Ms. Rosenberg is not a member or employee of the Council or an official associate. Therefore she has to be cleared for participation."

Irritation shot through Xander as he recalled why Willow wasn't a member of the Council anymore. After her rather rough breakup with Kennedy, Willow had left her post in Brazil without forewarning and went to Africa. Travers and his lackeys decided to use that and Willow's previous magic addiction problem as proof that she was unreliable and forced Giles to fire her.

"Well, then consider her cleared." Xander returned sharply, but he knew it wasn't going to be this easy.

"Xander..."

"Mr. Harris, please." Then he added with a slightly evil grin: "Or boss, whichever you like." He knew Travers hated working under Xander. The job the stuffy brit had worked so hard for to get, and 'work' in this case meant manipulating rich and powerful people, had been taken by some 'useless prat barely out of his teens'.

To his credit, Travers managed to keep the venom in his eyes from interfering with the calmnes of his voice as he continued. "Mr. Harris, regulation clearly states that she has to be cleared by _all_ participating members of the Council, which last I checked still includes myself, McMannon and Robinson. And considering Ms. Rosenberg's history, I'm certainly not going to agree to this."

"Willow's history is none of your damn business!"

"Oh, but as member of the Council, it is."

"Then I guess we'll have to do something about that."

"You can't, only with a majority vote can a member of the Council be removed."

"A-actually, " Perry chimed in. "he ca-can temporarily suspend y-you."

Xander shot him a grateful glance. Nope, he definitely did not regret hiring the blond man as his assistant. The look on Travers face, which was slowly turning red, was just priceless.

"That's blackmail!"

"Got it in one. Now, let's start the meeting...unless someone else here has any objections?" Xander glared at each participant, daring them to make another comment on the presence of Willow. Some audibly gulped, but other than that everyone remained quiet.

"Good. Marsha, you called the meeting, so go ahead."

In the next few minutes Marsha related the events of yesterday's patrol, from finding the vampire base to the escape of the remaining vampires through the portal.

"You mean to say they actually had an organized retreat?" Robinson asked in disbelief. "This is most disturbing. The foremost weakness of vampires is that they act mostly on primal instincts. Even when they work in groups they act like a pack of animals with little or no coordination or discipline. If someone or something is able to instill discipline and coordination on a large group of vampires, he would effectually be able to create an army stronger than any on Earth!"

Xander couldn't help grin at Robinson's comment, despite its air of doom. Marsha's Watcher reminded him a lot of Giles. All that was missing was the constant polishing of glasses and the occasional _'oh dear'_ and _'good lord'_.

"There was no real teamwork until they started to retreat." The dark-haired slayer explained. "They went into the room and formed a defensive parameter near its only entrance. We decided not to engage until we had a proper plan of attack, but they escaped before we could form one."

"Considering the circumstances, that was probably the best option available." That was Robinson's way of saying 'good work' to his charge.

"Right, so we figured that the whole vampire retreat thingy is a a bad thing. Anything we can do about it?" Xander asked.

"Aside from finding out and eliminating whoever is responsible for this unusual threat, there is little we can do."

"What about instilling some coordination of our own? Currently the training of our slayers focuses on individual skills, but now that there's not just one, maybe it'd be a good idea to teach them how to work as a team."

"Excellent suggestion, Marsha. I imagine a little teamwork will prove useful against other threats as well." Robinson praised.

"Unfortunately, since we watchers have been trained to prepare only one slayer, we have little knowledge on tactics involving more than one slayer." Travers added.

Xander ignored the irritated tone in Travers voice. "Yeah, I'll talk about this with Giles to see if he can find someone who knows his stuff in that area. And I think this is something that could be implemented in other branches of the Watchers Council as well. Any other ideas on this teamwork or vampire retreat thing?"

Silence ensued, so Xander continued. "Okay, what about the portal. In my experience portals equal badness and vampires retreating through portals are giving me major wiggins. What do we know about the portal?"

"Unfortunately we haven't had the time to properly research it." Robinson explained on behalf of the watchers.

"Right. Willow, what about you? Is there anything you can tell about the portal from Marsha's description?"

Willow looked flustered at the sudden request to speak in front of 7 people she barely knew. For a moment Xander was afraid that Willow's stage fright would get the better of her, but she quickly composed herself.

"Well, a-all the description tells me is that the portal was created with dark magic, which is pretty obvious with the evil, soulless vampires going through it and all. I didn't sense any big spells in the city last night, so whoever cast it did it from the other side of the portal."

"Any idea where it lead to?"

"Could be anywhere from 50 miles out of town to the other end of the universe, another dimension or even another reality. It kinda depends on how much power was put into the spell, but it's at least 50 miles away, else I would have sensed it."

"Is there any way to figure out the origin?"

"Yes, I think there is a spell, but it will need to be cast while the portal is open and it needs to be cast close to it, so either we'd have to travel back in time or we need to know where and when another portal opens."

"So let me get this straight. Basically all we need is to find their next vampire base, if there is going to be another one here at all. Then we need to contact you, so you can prepare the spell and be there when the portal opens, without alerting the vampires. Then we attack the vampires and hope they retreat through another portal to that actually goes to the same destination. Suppose that this destination is reachable, we need to transport an assault team to it before they decide to take no chances and clear out."

Willow confirmed it with a nod.

"There are way too many conditions to that plan."

"Oh, and you can't get too close to the portal either, because you might get sucked in." She added happily.

Xander groaned. He didn't like this plan very much.

"Okay, any other ideas?" Unfortunately everyone remained silent. "Alright. Willow, I want you and Mzee working on that spell you were talking about. And see if you can find something easier while you're at it. Travers, you and McMannon are going to find out anything you can about this portal. And let some of the slayers help out with the research; they can probably use the experience. Robinson, you are going to work with Marsha and Meko on teamwork training. I'll contact Giles about that tactical expert and maybe for some books in that area. Any Questions?"


	5. Forgotten

**Chapter 5: Forgotten**

"Wow, Xander!" Willow exclaimed proudly as the two of them left the meeting room. "You were all Mr. Boss in there, with the questioning and the ordering." She smiled knowingly. "And you like it, don't you."

Xander's leadership skills weren't newfound. He had always been the leader of the group, back when it was just him, Willow and Jessie. It always was Xander who decided what to do. Yeah, Jessie and Willow voiced their own ideas, but it was always Xander who made it all happen. He took in account the opinions of the rest of the group, making sure all three of them had their share of fun. Willow never minded, though. She was too shy to dare take control of a situation and happily let Xander do it.

That was the case until Buffy came along and Vampires and Demons became alive. Suddenly Xander wasn't the leader anymore. He got pushed into the background because everyone else's skills were so much easier to point out. Buffy had her slayer powers, Giles had his demon knowledge and Willow had her own knowledge and later her powers as a witch.

Willow still felt bad about trying to get him away from the demon fighting some 5 years ago. Not just because she knew it had to be hard on him, but also because they had no reason to do so. Xander had been important part of the Scooby gang, whether it was evident or not. He kept moral up with his jokes and sometimes his surprisingly good insight in everyone's emotions. He was able to beat demons and saved lives with sheer willpower and courage. Of course it helped that demons tended to underestimate him. And at times, his view of situations had allowed them to beat the big bad of the month.

During the meeting she had seen leader Xander again and she couldn't help but wonder if things might have gone better if they had let Xander take a more important role in the Scooby gang.

Xander grinned. "Yeah, it certainly beats being on the receiving end. And it feels like I'm actually doing something useful around here, you know, instead of just being the guy that gets the donuts and fixes the windows."

"You were always more than that, Xand. We wouldn't be standing here without you."

He smiled in appreciation of the compliment, but it was forced. He didn't seem too convinced of the truth of it.

"Do you think Giles would have given you this job if he thought you were useless?"

"The only reason he gave it to me is because he didn't want to give it to Travers. He had run out of other candidates. There were no other watchers available who he trusted, Buffy was taking a break from the whole fight against evil and you were already on your way to Brazil."

"Oh just stop it! You don't just make someone head of anything just because he is the only one available. Giles could have simply waited until a better candidate showed up, but he didn't because you are a good candidate." She gave him her resolve face to show she meant it. "And don't you dare argue with me on this. I'm the smart one here."

This time he returned a real smile. "That you are."

"Still, that doesn't mean Giles is going to like that you threatened Travers." Willow stated after a few moments

"Hey, I didn't threaten him; I gave him a choice." He returned in mock innocence.

The redhead rolled her eyes "I don't think Giles will see it that way."

Xander grinned at that. "Maybe Giles won't, but I'm sure Ripper will see the fun of it all."

Willow shook her head with a small smile and then turned serious to look him in the eyes. "Why did you do it? You could have just let me leave and fill me in afterwards. There is a reason I was removed from the Council. I deserve it. I shouldn't have left Brazil like that."

"Oh come on, Will. You've been saving the world for the last 7 years. I think a little leeway is in order here. One little slip up is no reason for them to kick you out. Besides, I'm not going to let anyone insult my Willow, especially those who have no idea what you have gone through."

Willow guiltily looked at her feet. "But what if something had happened while I was gone? Something that needed my witchy powers and I wasn't there and no other witches were there, because they figured I would be there, so they wouldn't have needed any other witches, or what if I was the only one powerful enough to stop whatever would be there that needed to be stopped. And because I wasn't there to stop it, it would be able to open the Helmouth to let out those scary true Demons so they could slaughter every single person on the planet, bringing hell to earth!"

Willow took a deep breath and then punched Xander's shoulder.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"Because, you let me babble again! If I ever choke to dead because you neglected remind me that I need oxygen, I'm gonna come back as a ghost and haunt you for the rest of your miserable life. And don't think I can't. I've been a ghost before, I can do it again. And remember: I know all your darkest fears."

"Fears? The Amazing Xandman fears nothing!" Xander returned in his best cartoon announcer voice.

"Oh no? So, you don't mind a certain blonde senior slayer to find out about your fight with Harmony in 5th grade?" Willow smiled smugly.

Xander's head turned red at that and fear did indeed show on his face. "You-you can't! Y-you pinky swore to never ever talk about that with anyone."

Willow returned an evil grin. "I vowed not to speak of it while I_ lived_. The pinky swear never covered the afterlife."

"Fine." Xander grumbled in defeat, then returned to the original subject. "As for the hell to earth thing: You know there are at least a dozen slayers in Brazil. I'm sure they'd be able to hold their own long enough for magical help to arrive if they ever needed it. Besides, whether you are part of the Council or not, you are important in the fight against evil. Your help will save lives and that's what matters here most. I'm not going to let some meaningless powerstruggle interfere with that."

Willow shook her head. How could he even have thought that he wasn't good enough to run the African Watchers Council?

* * *

"Hey, clothes." Willow remarked as she finished buttoning her shirt.

Tara smiled naughtily. "Better not get used to them."

"Yes, ma'am." Willow returned the smile as she pulled Tara in for a kiss. Something felt ominous about this moment, but she shrugged it off. She and Tara had just recently gotten back together. It was like falling in love all over again, without all the awkwardness, so other things tended not to bother her too much.

"Mmmm... Xander."

Willow broke their hug. "Okay, not quite the response I was fishing for." she mocked.

"No, he's here."

"Think they're making up?"

The blond witch smiled again. Oh, how she loved that smile!

"I hope so. That's the best part."

Again that ominousness crept in Willow's mind, coupled with a deja vu feeling it got her worried.

Suddenly a loud bang interrupted her thoughts and blood spat on her clothes. Tara gazed at her in shock. "Your shirt..." was all she could say before she fell to the ground.

"Tara? Tara!"

Willow was quickly by her side. She looked to find out what the problem was and noticed the shot wound in Tara's chest. NO! She looked at the wound then stared numbly at the gun in her hand. She threw the weapon away and turned to what mattered most to her.

"Baby, come on baby, please get up. Please." she pleaded cradling Tara's head in her lap. This couldn't be happening, she wouldn't...she didn't know why, but she hated guns. Yet she was carrying one and she hadn't realized it. She didn't even remember shooting, but she felt in her heart it was true: she had killed Tara.

* * *

Willow woke up in tears. She had tried so hard to forget that day and it had worked mostly. She hadn't dreamed of Tara for a while now, she didn't dream of anything anymore. She usually just woke up in the morning and went through the day focusing on whatever she was doing and if she wasn't doing anything she would just meditate. But she tried not to stop, because stopping led to thinking which led to thinking about Tara and she just couldn't bare thinking about her.

Being with Kennedy had helped keeping her mind busy, because she cared for Kennedy, or at least she had convinced herself that she did, until she realized she had just used her. How could she have done that? Innocent, virtuous Willow had taken advantage of another person just to forget about her love. Of course, she hadn't been innocent or virtuous for a while now. Not since Buffy's resurrection, or maybe even before that.

"Hey Will," a voice came from the doorway "it's time to get up."

Xander. After her trip to England he had been the only one who had truly accepted her back. Buffy had tried, but Willow saw in her eyes she hadn't forgiven her for ripping her out of heaven. Dawn was always nervous around her. And Anya, well, the two of them had never gotten along. She didn't blame any of them after what she had done. It's why she had avoided Xander as much as possible ever since, after all, she didn't deserve to be accepted.

But after her break-up with Kennedy it got bad again, because there had been no one else in Brazil who cared about her. She had been alone and alone time led to thinking and that was one thing she hadn't wanted do to. Meditating only worked for a while. Finally she couldn't take it anymore and flew to Africa to beg Xander accept her again. She hadn't actually needed to beg at all. In fact she had to convince him that he hadn't done anything to make her mad at him. Sometimes he could be such a dummy.

"Willow? Are you okay?"

She quickly wiped her tears away.

"I...I'm fine." she smiled at him in confirmation of her words, but as she did so she knew it didn't reach her eyes.

"Alright." Xander returned sounding less than convinced, but he dropped the matter nevertheless. "You'd better get up, you're late for school."

She smiled, this time a real one. She was a teacher at the slayer school. She had always loved teaching and since Watchers, while they had the knowledge, weren't always good at teaching it to a bunch of teenage girls, Xander had decided to hire Willow. Being here with Xander had been good. She was able to forget again and sometimes even without trying.

So why had she dreamed about Tara?

**Author's notes:**

Ok, next chapter will finally have some action in it and after that the story will be more active overall, so bare with me.


	6. Assassination

**Chapter 6: Assassination**

The office was simple, practical and pretty much devoid of decoration as Xander didn't usually spend much time here. He never was one to sit behind a desk all day reading reports and signing things that needed to be signed. How could you possibly run anything just by sitting behind a desk? Reports only showed a fraction of what was really going on in a place. Phone calls, letters and E-mails could only move people so far. If you really want to have something done, you ask it in person and you try to motivate them. If you want to find out what's going on, you look around and watch. If you want to do something useful, you help out where you can.

The phone decided to make its presence known with a loud ring. Xander hit the pause button and the computer screen froze to show the amount of virtual vampires he had slain. After another ring, Xander grabbed the horn. This was the call he had been waiting for.

"Hi Giles."

"Eh... yes, Xander. Good evening." a flustered voice returned. "I've just received a call from Mr. Travers junior, and quite a distressing one I might add." He paused for a moment. The lack of pleasantries was a testimony to his busyness. Several of the slayers Xander had contact with, including Buffy and Faith had been complaining about how Giles had been all work lately.

"It seems he has the impression that he was blackmailed."

"And an accurate impression it is" Xander confirmed nonchalantly.

Giles sighed. "Xander. I do not like Travers and his... admirers any more than you do. But they do control a large portion of the Council's contacts and resources. They can make things quite difficult for us if we do not cooperate with them."

"Actually, they are already making things more difficult than they should be."

"Be that as it may, we need their resources to locate and contact as much slayers as we can in as short a time as possible. And there is already a terrible shortage of watchers, we cannot afford to loose any more."

Xander snorted. "You mean those Watchers who still think that the slayers work for them and the Council instead of the other way around? Giles, you asked me to run things around here and that's what I'm doing, but I'm doing it my way. I didn't sign up to lick the boots of Mr. I-cheat-by-the-book. If you want that, you can hire someone else."

This made Giles pause. Maybe Xander was a bit harsh on him. Being head of the whole Watchers Council couldn't be an easy job and by the sound of it Giles was already pretty stressed about it. But Xander was tired about the way things were going lately. Willow's removal from the Council, the introduction of so many formal rules that only someone with photographic memory could possibly remember all of them, and the way Travers seemed to be working against him every step of the way. In this line of work, more often than not, lives were at stake and if Xander had to choose between lives and rules he would never choose rules. The carpenter had half a mind to just take all the slayers and personnel and create his own Watchers Council in Africa. Unfortunately, that would cause a whole new set of different problems he wanted to face even less.

"Besides, it's not like blackmail is against Council policy. Remember when the Council decided to show up at the magic box when we asked for info on Glory?"

"Yes, I vaguely recall being threatened with deportation." Giles returned sarcastically. "But we're not the same Council."

"Well, maybe it's my lack of depth perception, but I don't see much difference. I mean, we've got the insane rules, the ambitious Watchers who care more about their own position and power than pesky things like 'the end of the world'. Other than the fact that all potentials are now slayers, what's changed, Giles?"

"I will admit that the reformations are not going as planned, but at the moment our priorities lay elsewhere. We need to find as many slayers as possible lest they get taken by demons or something similar."

Xander sighed. Giles was right about there being more important things to worry about. Not just the slayers, but also the current signs of a pending apocalypse. Vampire bases and portals were not a promising combination.

"Please Xander, just try to restrain yourself."

The carpenter smiled. "I didn't physically throw him out of the building, did I? I think I've shown a lot of restraint right there."

He could swear he heard a chuckle from Giles, but it vanished behind the clearing of the head watcher's throat.

"There is something else I wanted to talk to you about, though." Xander continued. "I think we may have something helmouth going on here, Giles. Have you ever heard of vampires escaping through purple discs?"

* * *

Saturday was a lonely day for Xander. He had the day off from work, since there usually wasn't much to do on Saturday. The slayers didn't have any school and there was no scheduled training. Marsha could handle the organization of the patrols this night and if there was any sort of emergency Xander was always reachable. Willow was gone to do magic stuff with Mzee. The two of them had been working all week on some experiments which included trying to find a better way to locate portals. So far they had little succes. The only spell they had found had a preparation time of 30 minutes and and the ritual itself took 15 minutes. In short; they needed to know where a portal would open at least 30 minutes before it actually happened. Then the portal would need to stay open for another 15 minutes to get the spell working. Neither condition was likely to happen. Fortunately there hadn't been any new signs of pending apocalypses, so they still had some time before things would become really stressful.

So the house was quiet today and that's how Xander liked his Saturday. It was just him, the TV and some of the most unhealthy snacks in the history of mankind. So naturally he felt annoyed, when three knocks on the door pierced the chattering of cartoon characters.

Willow had the keys, so it couldn't be her, if there was any sort of emergency he would be called on his phone. Since it wasn't an emergency, or Willow he didn't feel inclined to open the door, so he just kept watching his cartoons. Unfortunately the assailant of his door was persistent and after another triple knock the carpenter tore himself away from the comfort of his couch and shuffled to the front door to open it.

Beyond the door stood a young girl dressed in a white T-shirt, a skirt and running shoes. Her wavy blond hair was tied into a braid and her innocent blue eyes drained all the annoyance from Xander's thoughts and only left a smile behind.

"Hey Sera, come in."

Sera did as requested and her look of uncertainty remained outside.

"What brings my favorite student to my humble estate?" He asked guiding her towards the living room.

The young slayer took a few seconds to consider her answer. It was a strange phenomenon to someone who was used to dealing with giggling, babbling and stuttering girls, but nevertheless a welcome one.

"I finished reading the Spider-man books."

"Ah! so, you're here for more." Xander smiled. Finally someone else, besides Andrew, who understood the intrinsic entertaining qualities of comic books, the deep complexity of their sub-text, the artistic brilliance of their creators. Well, either that, or she just had fun reading them, like Xander himself did.

"No, I was wondering if you wanted to hang out with me." She explained nervously.

To say that this explanation surprised Xander was a bit of an understatement. First of all Xander was literally twice as old as Sera. When Xander was her age, he never felt particularly inclined to hang out with adults. Of course, some people would argue that his emotional maturity wasn't far from Sera's at all. Apparently 'mature' people weren't supposed to watch cartoons, read comics, or play computer games. The second reason for him to be surprised was that most slayers who wanted to 'hang out' with Xander, either had a crush on him, were being dared to ask him out on a date, or both. Neither reason seemed to apply to Sera. She just wanted to hang out with someone and the age difference between her and the other slayers at the school had prevented her from making friends. Another reason why it had been a bad idea to bring her to the slayer school.

"Well, that depends...do you like cartoons? Because today is the day of Xander's spectacular cartoon fest!"

And so the two of them spent the day together. The first couple of hours they were just laughing at cartoons, that were still funny despite the fact that Xander had seen them all probably a dozen times. It was almost painful for him to discover how few of them Sera had ever seen. Even the classics like Road runner and Popeye were unknown to her. There should be some sort of law against kids growing up without cartoons.

They decided not to watch cartoons all day. It couldn't be too healthy for Sera. Xander himself did it all the time, but he was a professional. It took extraordinary skill, experience and resistance against TV screen radiation, which not everyone was blessed with. Anyway, nearing the afternoon they went outside. Xander showed off Willow's tiny garden in the middle of the large backyard and they climbed a bit in the Oak during which they were both talking and laughing at the silliest things.

Later that day, there came the boardgames. Xander was almost glad Anya wasn't there, she always won at those. Not that he fared much better without her. His years of experience were no match for Sera's disgusting amount of beginners luck.

Still, the both of them had a lot of fun and before they knew it the sun was setting and it became dark outside. Time for the movie! Since Sera hadn't seen many movies Xander decided to bring out the old classic: the Star Wars Trilogy.

The microwave announced the readiness of the popcorn. They couldn't very well watch a movie without popcorn could they? But as Xander walked past the front door he felt a familiar tingling in his head. It wasn't a good tingling.

"Sera, get out of here!" he shouted out. "Get some help!"

The carpenter ran towards the weapons chest and took out his trusty axe. At the same time the door blew from its hinges and broke as it crashed into the wall. Anger coursed through Xander as he noted the pointless wrecking of his beautiful, home-made, mahogany front door. He turned his attention and anger to the hideous seven foot demon that was responsible for it.

The creature seemed vaguely familiar, which didn't mean much. He had skimmed through many demon books and seen hundreds if not thousands of sketches of demons. And this demon looked pretty much like any other. It had all the standard demonic attributes: Horns, though they were smaller than average. Claws, they weren't too impressive either. Teeth definitely identified it as a carnivore. Its face looked menacing, but not too bright. The only things that really stood out was its arms, or rather the rusty metallic armor on them, and the amulet around its neck. Very few demons wore armor, they were too full of themselves to even consider that they might need it, and amulets were for witches and warlocks, not demons.

Whatever the reason was for the amulet, it didn't matter now. All that mattered was how to kill it. His axe high, Xander charged at the demon. He swung it at the creature's head, it was usually the best way to kill a demon, but the axe only found the armor of its left arm. A loud clang sounded, but that was all the effect the axe had.

Xander swallowed hard as he noted that the attack hadn't even so much as dented the armor. This was going to be a painful night. As if on cue, a fist shot towards his head. That was pretty much all he saw before everything went black.

**Authors notes:**

Well, another chapter done. Next week I will try to have another chapter ready, but I can't guarantee anything because it's going to be a busy week for me. So, you just might have to wait two weeks instead. Don't worry though, it won't be any longer than that. For those who don't know, I tend to post my chapters on a Friday.

Invis and Jake thanks for your support! And of course I wouldn't want to forget my new beta-reader: Ivy Giles! May your generosity lead to bright and clean Karma or Gaia or something.


	7. My little Superhero

**Chapter 7: My little Superhero**

Anxiously she watched his unconscious body stir for a moment, but he did not wake. Cassandra, nurse of the slayer school infirmary, had assured her that he wasn't in a coma and that he would wake up eventually. Still Willow couldn't rest until she was sure. Until he actually opened his eyes and told her he was okay. She wasn't sure she could handle it if anything happened to him, especially now that the painful memories of Tara were lurking near the surface again.

These were the times when it was most difficult not to resort to magic. The dark magic did not have a hold over her anymore, but that didn't mean she could use it whenever she felt like it. She had to be careful on how reliant she was on magic, because she could easily loose control again.

Her heart leaped when she heard a moan coming from her best friend. After three hours he finally awoke. Immediately Willow trapped him in a fierce hug. It took a few moments before he returned the hug, which wasn't surprising since he had just woken up. Still, it pained her to realize that their friendship was still a far cry from what it once had been. Hugs like these used to go automatically, as did the responses to them.

"Willow." She heard him breath out.

Only then she realized her hug had been a bit too much on the enthusiastic side. She loosened the embrace to give Xander some air, but she didn't end it. She needed to let him know how much he meant to her. You couldn't truly express something like that in words.

They finally let go and she looked him in the eye, confirming that he was okay. She saw that he was and nodded in acceptance. That was Xander's cue to throw out on of his lopsided grins. He was up to something, that was for sure.

"Did you get super strength while I was out cold?"

This made Willow blush, and Xander's grin grew even wider. "No, no super strength. Just your average plain old Willow-strength." She smiled back, just glad that he was alright.

"So..." Before Xander could get out any more of his sentence a host of quick and loud footsteps interrupted him and soon the carpenter was trapped in another horizontal bearhug, this time courtesy of Sera.

"Xander! You're alive!" the young slayer exclaimed in relief.

Willow didn't even bother to stifle her laugh at Xander's discomfort. That's what he got for making her blush.

"Sera, sweety, we'd like to keep him that way." She answered for Xander while putting a hand on the young blonde's shoulder.

"Oh! Sorry." Sera apologized, reluctantly releasing her hug.

"I never thought that the most dangerous part of getting knocked out was the waking up." Xander muttered as sat up in his bed. "So...What happened?" He asked, ruffling Sera's hair.

_'When had the two of them gotten so close?' _Willow wondered. She knew Xander liked the young slayer, but it had been more like a kind of admiration and protectiveness until now. Now they acted like they were brother and sister, and they had only known each other for a week! Was that jealousy? Yup, definitely jealousy. She wasn't jealous of their closeness. She and Xander were best friends and Sera would never be able to come between that. No, she was jealous on how easy things between Xander and Sera had developed. They had a clean slate and they were just getting to know eachother. Willow and Xander on the other hand had a history. And not everything in that history was all hunky-dory. She often wished they could just start over again, after all, it was easier to build something from scratch than to try and fix a big old train wreck.

Willow's thoughts were interrupted when she realized Xander was waiting for an answer. "You were attacked by a demon."

Xander rolled his eye. "I gathered as much from the demon-sized fist I can still feel on my face. But how did it get in to the house? I thought you had a demon ward thingy set up around it."

"I don't know." Willow admitted reluctantly. She heard no blame in Xander's voice, but she couldn't help but feel responsible for the attack. "It shouldn't have been possible for the demon to break through. Not without a lot of power. And I would have felt any disturbance to the ward if anything did try to break through. If Sera hadn't slain the demon and carried you here..."

Before she could contemplate on the possibility of Xander's demise, the carpenter interrupted her.

"What!" He turned angrily to Sera. "I thought I told you to get help!"

The poor girl was shocked at his sudden outburst.

"But I..."

"Not buts! You're not a slayer! You may have the super strength and speed, but not the experience or training."

"Xander, don't." Willow pleaded for him to calm down, but he didn't even seem to hear her.

"If you see a demon, you run and find help. You don't try to slay it! Am I clear?"

For a moment it seemed as if Sera was going to reply, but instead she burst into tears and stormed out of the infirmary.

Xander's wary expression turned towards Willow and flinched at the angry look on her face.

"You didn't have to be so hard on her. She saved your life, you know!"

"And she could have been killed in the process."

"No Xander, you listen to me." Willow returned firmly and poked his chest for good measure. "For years I've had to watch you get into situations you had no right to walk away from alive. I've learned to accept that I can't keep you from trying to save Buffy, Dawn, me or whoever else is in trouble. Sera looks up to you. She can't just run away and let you die if she could possibly prevent it. And you of all people shouldn't berate her for that. Especially not when, unlike you, she actually has the superpowers to back her up!"

Willow hated to bring up that last part, knowing that it was a sore point for Xander. He had always been the normal one and while Willow herself admired that about him, her best friend tended to be a bit sensitive on that subject. But this wasn't about Xander, it was about Sera. She had saved Xander's life. He should be grateful instead of angry towards the little slayer. He probably was grateful, but he tended to care more about other people's lives than his own.

Willow could see Xander struggling with his thoughts and feelings. Initially he seemed to have been surprised at Willow's outburst, but after a few moments he seemed to realize his mistake.

"I was being an idiot again, wasn't I?"

"Yup."

"I'm going to have to make it up to her, don't I?"

"Uhuh."

"You're not going to help me are you?"

"Nope."

Xander sighed and lay himself back down on the bed. "She carried me?"

Willow smirked. "Like a groom carries his bride, except that the bride was carrying the groom and an eleven year old girl, while the groom was a 23 year old one-eyed carpenter and the two of them weren't really married. So actually not like that at all."

"Please tell me no one else saw it." Xander pleaded hopefully.

"Oh, it was dark outside and the distance between the house and the school isn't that great, so nobody probably noticed. The slayers at the school, on the other hand... I think about half the girls saw it and the other half will probably have seen the pictures by tomorrow."

"Pictures?" he asked meekly. At the sight Willow's teasing smile he buried his face in his hands.

* * *

Sera was lying on her bed, watching the wall change shape through her tears. She knew it was silly to cry over this, but she couldn't help herself. When Willow told Xander that she was the one who had rescued him, she had expected gratitude, or at least acceptance. What she hadn't expected was that he would get mad at her, even though she had disobeyed his order to run and find help. But if she had done as was told, then it would have been too late and Xander would have been either dead or kidnapped. Surely that was worth something, wasn't it?

The knocking on the door spiked her irritation.

"Go away!" she cried.

Of course it was too much to ask for whoever knocked on the door to just do as she told. Apparently Sera was the only one who had to obey orders.

"That's one mighty effective invitation against vampires you got there." Xander said as he walked in.

She couldn't help but grin at the joke and buried her head in her pillow so he wouldn't be able to see it. She was after all supposed to be mad at Xander, and laughing at his jokes wouldn't really show that.

For a while Xander didn't say anything. Perhaps he expected Sera to speak, but she didn't trust herself not to laugh as soon as she separated from the pillow. Besides, the silence was a statement on its own. It stated that she didn't want to talk to him because she was mad and that was really all she had wanted to say.

"You remember what I told about Buffy?"

Sera did, but she didn't say anything. Xander had told her that Buffy was the oldest slayer alive and also that she was one of his best friends. Buffy had gone to Italy after the last battle of Sunnydale, to take a break from fighting demons.

"I never told you why she went to Rome. Well, the thing is, she had always wanted to get away from the slaying. And by always, I mean from the moment she found out she was a slayer."

This surprised Sera. She realized that after nearly 8 years of slaying, Buffy would probably a bit tired of it all, but from what Xander had just said it seemed that it was more than that.

"I don't blame her with the life she's lead. Her first watcher died only a few months after Buffy was called and that wasn't the last time Buffy lost one of her friends. In fact, she had to send her first boyfriend in Sunnydale to hell, after he had killed a good friend of ours. Then a few years ago her second boyfriend left her, and shortly after that Buffy's mother died of an aneurysm. Her third boyfriend died saving the world. And then there are the times that Buffy died herself. Of course, she's alive again now. We brought her back from the death a both times she died, but I don't think either death was any fun for her. And that was just a rough summary of some the tough times she had to face."

Xander paused and for a moment Sera wondered what he himself had gone through. He had told her a few things, among them how he lost his eye and how his fiancée Anya died. But right now she didn't think that was all of it.

He sighed. "What I'm trying to say is that Buffy had a tough life because of her being a slayer. I don't want you to have to deal with the kind of stuff she had to. That's why I was acting like a jerk in there. I'm sorry."

Sera finally turned to look at him and saw the genuine worry and guilt written on his face.

"So, you... you're not mad at me?"

He smiled sadly and sat himself next to her on her bed.

"No, of course not. How could I be mad at my little superhero? I was just scared for you and, well, when I'm scared I sometimes do really stupid things; like getting angry at the girl who saved my life for no reason."

Sera sat up. "Okay, I forgive you." She saw Xander smile in relief. "But, I do have one question:"

"Go ahead, hit me. On second thought, don't hit me, I really don't want to get knocked unconcious again. Just ask away. I am the answering machine... wait... that didn't sound right."

Sera giggled and this time she didn't mind mr. Xander seeing it. "How did you know about the demon?"

He frowned. "What do you mean?"

"You told me to get help, but that was before the demon entered the house. How did you know it was coming?"

There was a pause in the conversation in which Xander seemed to be carefully considering his answer.

"Alright, I'll tell you. But, you'll have to promise me you won't tell anyone about it. Well, except Willow, but she already knows."

"I promise." She assured him without hesitation.

With that he slowly removed his eye-patch and Sera let out a gasp when she saw what it covered. It wasn't one of those bad gasp, it was more a gasp of awe. Because, where she had expected, well, she wasn't sure what she had expected, except that it wasn't what was actually there. Xander had a purple crystal in the place where most people would have an eye!

"This is an Oculus Aurae. Or at least, that's what Willow calls it. I just call it my Aura eye, because it basically allows me to sense Aura's."

"What's an Aura?"

"I'm not sure. Willow mentioned something about radiating photons, but if you really want to know, you'd have to ask her. All I know is that I know when someone is a demon or not and I can kinda sense the difference between Willow's aura and the aura of other people."

"What about my Aura?"

"Well, it's stronger than most. That's pretty much the case with all slayers. Other than that, I'm not very good at the whole Aura reading thing yet. It takes time and practice, and I only got the eye about a month ago. Oh, and check this out."

Xander he took the crystal between his fingers and pulled it out. Sera winced at the sight. With a real eye that would definitely hurt, a lot. The eye-socket itself looked weird. It was like there had never really been an eye to begin with. There was just clean skin that looked like it belonged there and had always been there. The crystal eye was pretty cool. It was kinda round like a normal eye, but cut and polished like a diamond.

"Can you still sense Aura's now?"

"No, it only works when it's in my eye-socket. Sometimes I take it out before I go to sleep, because I keep sensing these changes. It's not like a normal eye, where you can just cover it when you don't want to see anything. The Aura eye always sees and it can see through most objects except when it has a really strong Aura."

"Wow."

"Yeah, it's pretty neat, isn't it?"

Sera nodded as Xander put the crystal back in and once again covered the whole thing with his eye-patch.

"Why do you keep it a secret?"

"Well, several reasons. I guess mostly, because I don't like people asking about it." At the apologizing look on Sera's face he quickly added. "And by people, I mean those who I don't really know and don't really care about. You can ask me about it any time you want." he said with a smile. "And then there's the whole element of surprise thing. If no one knows about the eye, then demons won't know about it either. It gives me a slight advantage and sometimes that can mean the difference between life and death."

The young slayer nodded, with Xander's lack of superpowers these small advantages were probably very important for him just to survive.

"So, when can I go on patrol?"

"Patrol?" Xander looked at her incredulously. "Now wait a second here. I know you have already slain your first demon, but those were extenuating circumstances. Just because you saved my life doesn't mean you're ready for patrol just yet. You still have a lot to learn about demons and fighting them. There will be no patrol for you for a very long while."

* * *

Barely two weeks later

Xander was puffing the last few dozen feet towards their target, or whatever was left of it by now. He was in pretty good shape with all the training of slayers, but no amount of work-out could give him the stamina needed to keep up with any one of his slayers, especially one as hyperactive as the eleven-year-old Sera.

Oh, how he hated the puppy-dog eyes that had manipulated him to allow Sera to join the vampire patrol tonight. He made a huge mental note, to never ever allow Sera alone in a room with Buffy, because a combination of Sera's puppy-dog eyes and Buffy's pout could easily break even the toughest battle-hardened warrior.

He came around the corner just in time to see the vampire explode, showering both Sera and then vampire's would be pray with its ashes.

"Wow!" Sera exclaimed. "Xander! Did you see that! I got it!" She added, jumping up and down from the excitement.

Xander couldn't help but smile at the girl's enthusiasm. No one he knew had ever had this much fun slaying vampires.

"Xander?" A familiar voice asked, still vibrating from fear.

He looked at the vampire's intended victim and his smile vanished as he recognized her as a employee of one of the local sawmills, except that she was now covered in ash, rather than sawdust. He quickly straightened up to mask his exhaustion.

"Joanne."

He really didn't feel like explaining the supernatural to her, so he decided to come up with a solid alternate explanation of what had just happened.

"Don't you just hate those dust clouds?" he asked her with a casual smile.

**Author's notes:**

Sorry about the lateness of this chapter. I decided to make it a bit longer to make up for it... Alright, alright, it's longer because it just turned out that way, but hey, good for you guys right?

Anyway, I'm changing the interval of chapters to 2 weeks from now on. It'll give me some more time to think about the story, which I'm gonna need since I'm out of usable material. Plus it will allow me to work on some other story ideas I've got. So, next chapter can be expected on the 15th of December 2006.


	8. Old and New Love

**Author's notes:**

Sorry for the lateness of this chapter, I had some trouble writing it. I can't say I'm completely happy with what I'm uploading now, but I've decided to just post it so at least the story continues. I hope you guys and gals like it regardless.

**Chapter 8: Old and New Love**

"It's that damn witch and her wards. Without them I could have sent in more demons and no lucky kid slayer would have been able to stop them."

General Aetius Flavius was listening to the report of the one he put in charge of assassinating Alexander Harris with a grimace. He knew failure and was used to it. Trouble was that with that the failed assassination attempt had alerted Harris and his army. Now there were always at least two slayers somewhere in Harris's vicinity to protect him, killing him was going to be difficult. Furthermore there was no disarray in the enemies ranks, and while their inside operative had been able to stall the council from finding out about his operation, it wasn't going to work for long. So, he did the only thing that he could do, he gave the assassin another chance. At least if he failed, things wouldn't be any worse than before.

"The witch is not your concern, avoid her if you can. My master will pay you triple if you succeed in ending Harris's life. If you fail again, it would be unwise for you to return to me."

* * *

She was running frantically through the nastier alleys of the city, occasionally looking behind her only to confirm that she was still being followed. It was times like these, or actually just this one time, that she was immensely thankful for her daily jogging routine. Coupled with the occasional hauling and sawing of wood it meant that Joanne was in pretty good shape for a 22 year old woman. She could definately handle herself. Unfortunately _'pretty good shape'_ didn't cut it at the moment. The man following her, or whatever he was, just didn't give up.

She had been on her way back to the sawmill, which also happened to be her home, when the man had attacked her. He wasn't an ordinary man though, she had realized that even before his face turned into something horrifically demonic. His strength was unnatural, she knew that much because while she could give even the stronger workers at sawmill a run for their money at arm-wrestling, she had been no match for her assailant at all. So she had done what every self-respecting independent woman would do: she had kneed her attacker between his legs with as much strength as she had been able to muster and ran away. It didn't matter how strong a man was, they all had the same weak spot. Unfortunately her attack didn't slow him down for long and now he was following and quickly gaining on her.

Her first thought had been to run towards the sawmill. The problem was that the only occupant there at this time of night was her father. And while she loved and respected him, he wouldn't exactly be able to stop her attacker. In fact, she was pretty sure she would be able to beat her dad in a fight. In the last decade he hadn't done much else than watch TV, chat with the customers, or laugh with his friends at the bar.

Then she recalled something from about a month ago. At the same bar that her father usually went to, she had seen a man with an eye-patch and who went by the name of Xander. He was also a fairly regular customer at the mill. He had been a bit down about some birthday present, but despite that Joanne had decided to try and talk to him. He was a customer after all. Many customers tended to come back if you gave them good customer service, and cheering someone up could in her opinion be considered part of that service. Of course, the fact that he was pretty handsome and had a good personality had had nothing to do with it _at all_.

The reason that she was going to where the man worked didn't have anything to do with his good looks though. Before he left he had given her a business card and told her that she should contact _them_ if she saw anything _really weird_. She had no idea what the _Watchers Council International_ was or why they had a branch here in Kenya. Nevertheless she had kept the business card, it couldn't hurt after all, right?

Now she decided that pointy teeth and yellow eyes definitely qualified as something weird and she hoped they could help her at the Watchers Council. It was closer than the sawmill as well and closer was becoming more desirable every second. She was running out of adrenaline and her legs were starting to ache.

Suddenly the attacker grabbed her from behind and slammed her with her back against the wall. How had he closed the distance between them so fast? This time he trapped her legs as well, so she couldn't pull the same trick she had done earlier.

This was it. She was as good as dead. Her fear strangely enough disappeared as she accepted her own impending demise. There was nothing she could do about it anyway, so why be afraid of it? Just as the man was about to sink his fangs into her, he suddenly straightened up and let out a groan. Less then a second later he exploded into dust to reveal a very young girl brandishing a wooden stake.

"Wow!" The blond girl exclaimed in excitement. Then she turned away from Joanne and started jumping up and down. "Xander! Did you see that! I got it!"

At the mention of the familiar name Joanne turned her gaze into the direction the girl was yelling at. There he stood: tall, short dark hair, eye-patch, and panting like he had just run the marathon.

"Xander?"

The man quickly straightened and turned to her, squinting his one eye perhaps to figure who she was.

"Joanne." He said in astonishment. Then he smiled. "Don't you just hate those dust clouds?"

Joanne looked down at her clothes that were covered in dust than looked back at him.

"Dust clouds?" She asked in disbelief bordering towards anger. "This man...thing... whatever. Attacks me and explodes, and your explanation is _dust clouds_?"

Xander grimaced. "Right, should've gone with the mugger story." He murmured to himself.

* * *

Lunchtime had been Xander's favorite time of the day since he could remember. It wasn't the food, although the food was probably a big part of it. Hey, he liked food, it's not a crime. The great part of lunch was usually the company, the chattering about nothing and the joking. Alright, so he did that stuff pretty much the rest of the day as well, it's just that at lunch it was expected even and the company tended to be more pleasant.

He was carrying his tray with a substantial amount of sandwiches while scanning the cafeteria for pleasant company. He easily spotted Willow at one of the tables at the back. Or rather, he spotted the wall of books that surrounded her.

He arrived at the table and put his tray on the nearby chair while clearing a couple of book piles from the table to reveal a startled red-headed witch behind them.

"Xander!" She exclaimed in surprise.

"Hey Will. Nice fortress you got there." Xander grinned as Willow rolled her eyes at the pun. "I don't think you've quite grasped the concept of lunch-_break_ yet." he continued. "But don't worry, I know all there is to know about lunch, so let me explain it to you."

"Hey! I was reading that."

Ignoring Willow's protests he grabbed another pile of books and put it on the floor. "First of all, books are a violation of the number one rule of lunch break, which is: No books."

He continued to to relieve the table of its burdens and soon all that was left was Willow's note-book and lunch-tray. "The second rule is: No writing notes about work." With that he confiscated Willow's note-book, which earned him a glare from the redhead, but soon her glare faltered and all that was left was a mock-pout. Sadly the pout turned out less mocking and more tired and somber.

Xander's best redheaded friend had become more distant lately. She was completely absorbed in her research and while that was not uncommon for Willow, it still worried him. Usually when she was absorbed in research she was excited like a kid with a new toy, not gloomy which was the case in the past few weeks. It wasn't her ordinary my-spell-didn't-work gloom either. This was Tara-died level gloom, and last he checked no one close to them had died, so this probably was about Tara's death. He couldn't figure out why though. Of course he knew why Willow was distressed about Tara's death, he knew the feeling of having the love of your life ripped away from you. It's just that she had seemed to be coping with it these past few months. What changed?

"Not much luck with the research?" He asked as he put his own lunch tray on the table and sat down opposite Willow.

She shook her head in dismay.

"If there is any luck around here at all, it's really trying very hard to avoid us. And it's very successful at it."

"Maybe you should take a break. Let someone else research the spell for a while."

"But aside from Mzee there is no-one here with enough knowledge about magic!."

"We have 3 watchers and a watcher trainee, remember? They may not know that much about magic, but they know how to research."

Willow reluctantly agreed.

"I'll ask Travers if he can take it over your research for now. And by ask, I mean _order_ of course." Xander added with a grin, eliciting a small smile from his best friend, which quickly turned into half-hearted admonishment.

"You shouldn't treat him like that. Even if he is a little more stuffy than most watchers, he still does a lot of good work for the Council."

"Not on purpose."

"Xander..."

"Fine, I won't treat him any differently than the other watchers, unless he asks for it. But, I don't think he will mind this though. He'll probably be happy to see to it that only 'authorized' personel will work on the spell."

Willow glared at him.

"What?" he asked innocently. "Anyway, I have an assignment I'm hoping you will take instead. We have another new slayer incoming in a few days. I'd like you to be there at Kisumu airport when she arrives."

The witch looked suspiciously at the way he said it. Like there was something more behind it than just keeping her busy. Of course, there was indeed something more to it than that. He had in fact requested Giles to send this particular slayer to Africa instead of Britain. He was hoping that the new arrivals would help to pull his best friend out of her depression, but he wanted it to remain a surprise.

"Alright I'll do it." She answered, the lack of an argument testimony to her tired and depressed state. "What about you? What's the head of the African branch of the Watchers Council doing in this time of crisis."

He frowned. "I'd hardly call this a time of crisis. We don't know what this whole portal thing is about. There don't seem to be any prophecies or rituals about the impending end of the world, at least nothing within the year, according to both Travers and Giles. Anyway, I'm doing pretty much everything I was doing before. Ordering people around, sparring with my favourite slayer in training and getting my ass kicked in the process, fixing up the second bathroom on the first floor."

"Isn't that what handyman are for?"

"Our budget is a bit limited. Besides, I don't really mind, it gives me an excuse not to do the paperwork."

Willow rolled her eyes.

"Like you would do the paperwork if you weren't being all Mr. Fix-it."

"Hey!" he returned indignantly. "I never said I would."

"What about a certain brunette you've been spending time with lately?"

"Joanne? Oh, she just wanted to learn how to defend herself if another vampire tried to attack her. We're not dating or anything."

"Well, maybe you should."

"What, ask her out? I don't think so."

"Why not? You already have a girlfriend?"

"No, I don't have a girlfriend. I'm not going to ask her out because for one thing, every real date I've ever been on ended with me almost dying."

"Well, then it's time for that to change. Besides, I think she likes you."

"Of course she likes me, I am a likable man." then he added questioningly."Right?"

Willow smiled a little at that. "I mean that I think she _likes_ you."

"Look, I can't. I don't exactly have the best track record when it comes to relationships. With my luck she's going to use me as a sacrifice in some kind of ritual. And that would be one of the better likely scenarios. And then there's Anya. It's...It's just too soon."

"I'm not asking you to marry her, or even to pursue a relationship. Just go on a date, have some fun away from all this. Besides, she is beautiful, funny, not a demon. I would know if she was a demon, and with your new eye you would know as well." then she dreamily added. "And she has a nice chest."

Xander smirked at that. "If you like her so much, maybe you should ask her out yourself, Will."

Willow blushed. "No, she..she doesn't swing that way."

"How do you know for sure? Considering my past, if she is not demonic, slayer, or completely uninterested in me, then there's a big chance she is a lesbian."

"Don't change the subject, mister. You're going to ask her out and you're going to enjoy a very normal, non-supernatural date, whether you like it or not." She returned firmly, and ended up frowning at her own sentence.

"Fine. I'll go on a date with a beautiful woman." He returned with a mocking sigh and shook his head. "The sacrifices I make for my bestest bud..."

* * *

Kisumu airport was pretty small. It witnessed the arrival and departure of maybe 6 airplanes on a good day. They usually carried a lot of mail and only few passengers and the plane that had just recently arrived was no exception.

That was why Meko looked slightly embarrassed as she carried the sign that said 'Hailey Matthews'. There were only two other groups of people waiting for passengers to get out: An elderly couple and a native African family, a big one consisting of 14 members. It was not likely that the young woman they were waiting for, would mistake either of them for Meko and her group. Then there was the whole slayer-being-able-to-sense-other-slayers thing, which made the sign completely unnecessary. Unfortunately, Willow didn't see it that way. She explained that it was better to be safe than sorry and there was no arguing with her.

Why Xander had asked for the redhead to join her and Raziya on this mission was beyond her. It wasn't like the two slayers couldn't handle it. All they had to do was to look for the new slayer among the passengers, fill her in on the history of slayers, demons and the goals of the new Watchers Council and show her the slayer school.

First to exit the plane was an African boy and an older couple who looked to be his parents. They immediately headed for the large family group. Next was a young woman and a short guy who Meko suspected was the woman's boyfriend. The woman had long wavy brown hair, whereas the guy had gone for unnatural blue and short. She could also sense that this was their slayer, so she started waving the sign and the young couple headed over towards them.

Before Meko could introduce everyone, Willow started towards the short guy and embraced him with a surprised "Oz!". This drew one of the tiniest smiles Meko had ever seen from the blue-haired guy, and a look that could only be described as 'territorial' from the new slayer. As soon as the embrace was over, Hailey grabbed the arm of Oz and possessively pulled him towards her, all the while glaring at Willow.

Oz gave Willow an apologetic shrug.

"Willow." he called and gestured towards the new slayer. "Hailey Matthews, mate, slayer, werewolf."


	9. Wolfman

**Chapter 9: Wolfman**

The credits of the movie, the only source of light in the room, scrolled down screen, dimly lightening up the couch and the couple upon it.

"You know, Count Dracula wasn't really anywhere near that intimidating."

Joanne looked with skepticism at her date. "You met Dracula?"

"Oh yeah, we vanquished his ass though. Or actually, Buffy did while I uh...kinda was too busy being his spider-eating man-bitch." He added uncomfortably

At Joanne's inquiring look he quickly amended: "Let's talk about a funner subject; have I told you about the time I had the Syphilis?"

The dark-haired woman shook her head in amusement. "You're one strange man, Xander."

An understatement if there ever was one. Xander had to deal with vampires, demons and even gods on a daily basis. He had fought against beings many times stronger than him for years and he was still alive. And yet he managed to act like everything was was normal, as if there was nothing to be afraid of.

Joanne herself had just recently come in contact with the supernatural and now she was afraid to leave her house, even in the middle the day. God, she didn't even dare to contemplate going out at night. She hadn't been able to sleep for days, until eventually she just fell asleep from exhaustion. The only reason she felt safe at the moment was because Xander was here with her. He had saved her that night...well... he was training the girl who had saved her. It was the same thing really. Besides, as head of the Slayer school here in Kisumu, Xander had at least two Slayer-bodyguards wherever he went.

"Strange... I can live with that."

She smiled. "It's just that every story you tell, you are the victim of something or other. Yet, the people around you look up to you."

"Must be my dazzling charms." He grinned.

"Perhaps." She returned sceptically.

"I hate to cut this short, but I think I should be going around now."

"Already? It's barely midnight."

"Yeah, I have to get up early. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm not just the Principal of a teenage girl school, I'm also a teacher there. I slept through a lot of classes at high school, but I can't really do that when I'm at the head of the class. I don't think it would be appropriate."

"Alright." Joanne returned reluctantly. "So, I'll see you tomorrow?"

Xander frowned.

"For training." she explained.

"Right, vampire-defense training." He realized. And Joanne wondered why he had frowned like that. Was he expecting a second date? Not that Joanne didn't want a second date, just not right now. She needed to pull herself together right now. She needed to come to terms with what had happened before she started any kind of relationship. That was what the training was for. But if he thought it was going to be a second date, what was that frown about?

* * *

"I can't believe you are here. I mean, last I knew you were in Tibet and I haven't heard anything from you since. What happened?"

"Found a pack." He explained.

Willow smiled at his antiques. Oz could always explain things in as few words as possible. What most people didn't know was that he did talk a lot more in a more private discussion with someone he was comfortable with. His words were like a privilege, only spoken when he believed them to be worth it. And the worth of a word depended not only on what he was trying to explain, but also to whom.

Then the werewolf smiled a little bit. A smile she hadn't seen since... he had been with Willow. "and a mate." he added. A smile that while it seemed small, meant that he was genuinely happy. It conjured up some mixed feelings within Willow. On the one hand she was glad he had moved on, the last time she had seen him it looked like he would never be happy again. On the other hand, that smile used to be for Willow only, and while the smile was directed towards her, she held no illusions that her presence was the cause of it.

It didn't help that the redheaded witch felt no love for Oz's new girlfriend. Hailey Matthews was so possessive of Oz that it was a miracle she had allowed the two former lovers to talk in private. Hailey's every move was executed like she owned everything, like she was the queen no matter where or with who she was. She reminded Willow of Cordelia in high school, before the brunette cheerleader turned out to be an actual decent human.

Hailey was so, so...different from Willow herself. She couldn't see how Oz could possible have ever truly loved her and now be in love with Hailey. Not that she had any reason, or right to be jealous of her. She didn't love the Oz anymore, not the way she used to. He was just a friend now. And yet she had been so used to that smile being there because of her.

"You really love her, don't you?"

Oz nodded then frowned lightly. "You don't approve?"

"No, no of course I approve. I'm just... surprised. She doesn't seem like your type."

He nodded in understanding, albeit nervously. "I've changed, Willow."

"You have." she agreed. Most people probably wouldn't have noticed, everything Oz did seemed different. Just slightly different, but enough for her to realize that he had gone through a lot since he had left Sunnydale. His movements were more graceful and even a little predatory instead of the relaxed attitude he used to project. His gaze was as sharp as ever and he looked more alert somehow. All in all, he acted more... wolf-like.

It was a bit like Xander after he had been possessed by the hyena spirit. Weeks after the possession, he still acted hyena-like at times. That was kinda scary.

"How are you doing? I heard about Tara..." Oz changed the subject.

Willow grimaced. "Better." It had become her standard answer when people asked about Tara, though not that many did. It was the only thing that wasn't really a lie, or that sprouted too much pity. And it told people the subject was off limits.

But then she changed her mind. Oz deserved a better answer than that. After all, the two of them had been pretty close at one point.

"It's hard. Even if it's been almost two years..." She stopped in mid sentence to swallow some of her heart-ache. "She was my everything...and just like that...gone." the last world came out barely a whisper. She wasn't crying, but only because she wouldn't let herself, not in a public place. "I'm trying...and Xander's helping..." Then she managed a slight smile and wondered if it was even tinier than one of Oz's. "I think he arranged for you to be here."

This time it was Oz's turn to grimace. Like all his expressions it was a tiny grimace, but Willow had long ago become proficient in Oz-reading. "I doubt that."

Willow frowned. "What do you mean?"

"He doesn't talk to me." He explained grimly. "We used to be friends. Even after...you and him..."

"Well, he's been pretty busy with being the boss and all." She tried to defend her best friend, but Oz remained skeptical. And so did Willow herself as she recalled the way Xander had barely acknowledged the Werewolf's presence the previous day.

"I could talk to him." She offered.

The werewolf looked thoughtful for a moment, but then he shook his head. "I'll handle this. I think it might be guy-stuff."

* * *

Xander was about to enter his office as he heard his name being called. He turned around to find a blue-haired Oz strolling towards him. Ever since the werewolf's arrival he had expected this. How could he not? He hadn't exactly hid his dislike of the petit musician. Actually he'd expected Willow to give him a piece of her mind first. The fact that Oz came first and alone at that was, as much as he hated to admit it, admirable. Or maybe Willow was simply too occupied with her own problems. She seemed to be getting even more broody lately and Xander had been unable to stop it.

He gestured for the werewolf to enter his office and followed, shutting the door behind him. For a moment the two of them were just looking at each other, sizing up their opponent with a predatory gaze. Well, not so much predatory as thoughtful in Oz's case, but Oz always looked thoughtful. Then came the glaring contest, in which it was pretty much just Xander who was glaring and Oz who was unfazed by it.

"So, what can I do for you?" Xander asked in a businesslike voice.

"I'm sorry."

"Yeah well, 'I'm sorry' doesn't really cut it. Willow is the forgiving one. I tend to keep grudges."

"I never meant to hurt her."

That statement got Xander's blood boiling and before he knew it his fist was out and Oz was lying on the ground clutching his cheek. "You cheated on her, and then you left her! What part of that did you think wouldn't hurt her?"

After a few moments he calmed himself down. He hadn't wanted this to turn into physical violence, but he didn't regret hitting Oz. Well, except for the part where he had bruised his fist.

"Better?" Oz asked after a few moments. Xander nodded and helped him back up again. As he did so he remembered that day when their roles were reversed. When Oz had been the one straightening _him_ out. It reminded him that he had been the source of Willow's pain himself, a couple of times. He'd be a hypocrite if he kept a grudge for this.

"You weren't kidding when you said this hurt." He returned, tenderly rubbing his hand.

* * *

Willow was in the cafeteria sitting across from Hailey, waiting for Xander and Oz to return from their talk. She was fidgeting nervously contrary to the brunette who looked calm and confident. Being alone with people she barely knew and had no direct tie with was definitely not on Willow's Fun-list, as she, Xander and Jessie called the lists they used to make at middle school when they were bored. And the fact that Hailey was the girlfriend of Willow's ex-boyfriend didn't make it any more enjoyable.

The silence was really starting to get to her so, against her well-honed instincts not to talk in these kind of stressful situations, she decided to do something about it.

"So...h-how did you and Oz meet?" She asked weakly, trying to make conversation.

Hailey frowned for a moment and a nearly panicking Willow was starting to think she had asked a stupid question, until she realized that she didn't know how the two of them had met, and since she didn't know it automatically wasn't a stupid question. "He ran into us in Germany."

"Us?" Willow wondered, since she hadn't seen anyone with them.

"Our pack."

"You have a pack of werewolves? I mean, wolves travel in packs and have complex hierarchy, but according to Lawley's book of demonology Werewolves usually travel alone, with the exception of a possible mate."

That comment earned Willow a glare from the brunette.

"Werewolves are NOT demons!" Hailey cried out in anger. "You have the same erroneous views of werewolves as he had. No wonder Oz was in such a bad shape when he found us! You were probably the one who encouraged him to suppress the wolf-part in the first place!"

Willow winced at the passion in Hailey's voice. This was the last time she would ever ignore her instincts.

* * *

Oz watched Xander carefully as the Werewolf finished explaining why he had left Willow that day. For years he had hated himself for doing exactly that. And even now he kept thinking of what he could have and maybe should have done instead.

He wasn't angry at Xander for hitting him. He had deserved it. In fact, there were times, lot's of them, where he had wanted to do it himself. He hadn't though, it would have been a little too Fight-club for his tastes.

The fact that Xander was angry at him, not just for cheating on Willow, but also for leaving her afterwards, made him realize that the carpenter had accepted him as Willow's boyfriend at the time. An acceptance he had worked hard for, but never really expected to receive. It had been a strange time; striving for acceptance from his greatest rival. Willow meant a lot to Xander, so any partner of Willow would have to be pretty much a saint if he, or as it turns out 'she', wanted to be accepted by Willow's best friend. And yet, Xander had this understanding look as he nodded. All Oz had received was a single bruise on his face. It just seemed too easy.

"So, did you find a way to control the wolf?" Xander asked.

Oz hesitated. Truthfully he hadn't, but Xander's real question wasn't about the wolf, but about whether Oz or Hailey were any kind of threat. "Sort of."

"Sort of?"

"We're both in control." At Xander's frown he continued. "A werewolf is a meld of two spirits: the human spirit and the wolf spirit. I'm not really Oz anymore, I'm Oz-wolf."

* * *

"B-b-but what about full-moon attacks?" Willow asked, shocked by this sudden revelation on the werewolf topic. Every reference work she had ever read on werewolves portrayed them as foul demonic creatures. How could they all possibly be so wrong?

"I'd like to see you stay sane when you're cooped up inside a body with no ability to control it, for most of the month! The werewolves you encountered were tainted by dark energies that bind the wolf. Only the magical power of the full moon can temporarily free them."

"But Oz..."

"We removed the energy from him, he's one of us now."

* * *

"Wait. So basically, you're now a wolf-man and you can change into a wolf whenever you want without having some spirit posses you?"

Oz nodded.

"Cool!" Xander grinned. "So, you probably like your steaks really rare these days huh?"

"Actually I prefer them medium to well-done. Wolves don't eat meat raw because it tastes better."

"Right. It must be tough lighting a lighter with paws."

Oz arched one eye-brow in amusement. That was probably the biggest expression Xander had ever seen on him. Possibly even the _only_ expression.

"so..." Oz said to continue the conversation. "Any possessions lately?"

"You know, now that you mention it, no. I haven't really had any stuff happen to me since...I moved from the hell-mouth. Maybe hell-mouths just don't like me and bad things only happen to me when I'm near one." He stopped in horror as he realized what he had just said. "Oh god! Me and my big mouth! I just jinxed myself really bad." He turned to Oz. "Why did you have to bring up that subject? God! Now the first woman I meet is probably going to seduce me and make me her slave for the rest of eternity or something!"

He shuddered and Oz looked at him sympathetically. Quickly he shook his thoughts away, thinking about what could happen only tended to make the things that actually would happen a lot worse.

"Hey Will!" he smiled as he and Oz arrived at the table where a decidedly uncomfortable Willow was listening to a scolding Hailey.

Both women lit up at the sight of him and Oz.

"Oz?" Hailey asked dangerously as she noticed the bruise on his face. "What happened?"

Before Oz could say anything Hailey turned her gaze to Xander. "Bastard! Nobody hurts my mate!"

Within a fraction of a second Hailey had closed the distance between her and Xander. "Hailey, no!" But Oz' warning was too late her fist was already on its way. It connected, but not with Xander's head. Instead the fist bounced harmlessly off a blue transparent forcefield. A second later the Were-slayer was flung several dozen feet through the air into a wall.

"You Slayers. Always thinking with your fists." Xander looked towards the source of the voice and winced at the sight of a black-eyed Willow. "Maybe I should let you feel the consequences of that kind of thinking. I wonder... what does it feel like to break a jaw?" Willow smiled wickedly. She was about to make a gesture, that probably _wouldn't_ just pop some flowers from the other side of the planet to the cafeteria, when Xander put a hand on her shoulder.

"Willow..." Was all that he needed to say. The redheaded witch stopped, closed her eyelids and opened them a moment later to once more reveal her natural green eyes.

She looked horrified at the battered slayer. "I'm sorry." She apologized in a barely audible voice. "I'm sorry."

Xander embraced her as she burst into tears. He saw slayers around the cafeteria who had watched the whole thing and he knew the coming days were going to be tough for Willow.

**Author's notes**

It's been a while since my last update. I was kinda busy with my new story: Willowless. But don't worry, I'm still working on both stories and I don't plan on stopping any time soon. Willowless will be my priority for now though.


	10. Restless

**Author's notes:**

Sorry about the rather big delay of this chapter. The last few months have been a little stressful fro me. I didn't have all that much time with school and stuff and whenever I had time, my muse seemed to be busy. But it's vacation-time now, so you can expect more chapters pretty soon.

**Chapter 10: Restless**

"She was provoked!" Xander cried out in frustration.

"As I heard it Hailey was the one who was originally provoked. In any case, the fact remains that she endangered the life of a Slayer, in front of room full of witnesses. We cannot allow her to keep teaching here. In fact, as of now, she will no longer be welcome here." Travers countered gleefully.

Xander gritted his teeth in frustration. Travers always got on his nerves with his warped priorities. He seemed to care more about the witnesses than the actual endangerment of the Slayer's life. Slayers were expendable to him, it was only reputation points that he cared about.

"So what? You're just going to alienate the most powerful witch on the planet for one little slip-up? She created the Slayers, for god sake!"

"Miss Rosenberg is a liability. Her power may be substantial, but without control it's useless."

"No." Xander said firmly. He had enough of all the debating. He had enough of having to struggle against rules and politics. "You know what? I'm the one in charge here and I say she stays."

Travers smirked in triumph. "You might want to re-think that. There are already many among the Council who question your leadership capabilities. Your education is meager to say the least, you have no special skills, and it was your idea to employ an emotionally unstable Witch. If they hear you let her stay after this, you and your witch very likely won't be here for long."

"I'm sorry Mr. Harris, but I agree with Mr. Travers." Robinson added. "By now everything that has happened has spread through the whole school. Even if Miss Rosenberg can keep her Magic under control, the Slayers will be guarded around her. That will make it difficult for her to tutor them properly. Not to mention that it will do little for her self-esteem. Her time would be better spent re-establishing control of her magic and emotions."

God, Xander hated this. It was all his fault. If he had just kept his anger towards Oz in check, none of this would have happened. He reluctantly decided that for now it was best to give in to the wishes of the Council. He just didn't know how to tell her she wasn't allowed to teach anymore. She always looked so much happier when she was teaching the Slayers.

* * *

"What the hell is she?" Hailey demanded from Oz as her sprained wrist was being bandaged in the infirmary. She was still reeling from the fight...slaughter actually. Being the alpha in her pack of werewolves, meant that she was rarely challenged. Nor did she have much experience fighting the supernatural, despite the fact that she was a magical cross between a human and a wolf.

"Wiccan." Oz returned as he eyed his mate slightly worried.

"Wiccan?" she asked in disbelief. "I've met Wiccas, they don't just shake magical shields out of their sleeves!"

"Dark magic." Oz added softly. He knew what was going to come next. Hailey had a very firm opinion about how the world, including the supernatural, should work and how people should behave. And she was passionate when it came to expressing those opinions.

"Dark Magic?" She cried in outrage. "That's it, were on the next plane out of here! Did any of you have any knowledge about the supernatural at all?" She continued, waving her uninjured arm in wide gestures. "You don't do dark magic! It's the number one wiccan rule. The consequences of dark magic are always worse than any gain you might get from it!"

"We were desperate sometimes." Even as Oz said the words he thought about what Giles said about dark Willow almost ended the world herself and realized that it was a weak argument at best.

"I don't believe it. She nearly killed me and now you're defending her!" Hailey accused.

Oz looked away. "She was never like this." he explained. "She was the sweetest girl I had ever met."

Hailey frowned. Though she was quite confident about the relationship between her and Oz, this was going into dangerous territory. Oz was extremely loyal, which was partly why she had chosen him. She had needed a strong male to secure her position in the pack, one who wouldn't just follow whoever was the alpha female at any given time, but who would stick with her. With him at her side, anyone who challenged her was up against him as well. And if she ever got demoted to beta, he would still be at her side. But this was different; an older loyalty could overrule his loyalty to her.

"Do you still love her?" She asked concerned.

Oz hesitated. "My human half loves the Willow she once was, but even the way she used to be she was unsuitable as a wolf." He looked back at Hailey with certainty. "Willow is _not_ a potential mate."

She smiled in relief and embraced him into a passionate kiss. She had to admit that Oz had grown closer to her than was custom for an Alpha-couple. Thouchy-feeling stuff usually only occured with the Beta's, but sometimes Hailey couldn't help herself with him.

"We should stay." the blue-haired werewolf said as they broke the kiss.

Hailey scowled back. "Why? So you can be around you ex-lover?"

Oz smiled in amusement at the twinge of jealousy in her voice. One of the things he loved about her was the stubborn denial of any of the more human emotions. She was a true alpha and didn't like to show any weaknesses. But he often liked those weaknesses, they made things more interesting. In private he sometimes tried to get her to lower her guard to get a glimpse of her true feelings, and it worked. She was opening up to him more and more, even though she still kept a firm lid on her emotions in public. And she seemed happier because of it.

"You're here to learn control. The Watchers Council is not trustworthy, but I trust Willow and Xander."

"Xander." she growled suddenly. "The guy who hit you."

"He was defending the honor of one of his pack."

Hailey looked at him for a moment and then gave in.

"Fine, but any more funny business from that witch and we're gone, okay?"

Oz nodded in agreement, even though part of him didn't feel to keen on abandoning Willow again. He felt some responsibility for her situation. But he had other responsibilities now, and he doubted he would be able to do any more to help Willow than Xander was already doing.

* * *

Xander was sitting restlessly in his office-chair vainly trying to do the paperwork that was months overdue. Of course, with everything that was going on it was little wonder that his thoughts kept straying. Not only had he had to 'expel' Willow from the school, there had also been next to no progress on the research of that vampire-portal. Hailey seemed on the brink of leaving, the only factor stopping her was Oz. And there was Travers.

He had hated Travers from the moment he saw him. No good could come from the stuffy brit. But there was more to it than that. Travers was definitely giving off bad vibes lately. He had been more gleeful than angry about Willow's actions. Every fiber of his being told him that Travers would cause trouble and his instincts had never been wrong... except with women. Women definitely messed with his instincts. Nearly every woman he had ever met and liked, had at one point tried to kill him. In fact Tara had pretty much been the only exception. He smiled sadly at the memory of the shy blond witch. He had always regretted not taking the time to get to know her better.

When it came to guys he was usually right on the money though. He had hated Angel, and the souled vampire had ended up bringing nothing but trouble. He had hated Spike, and again with the trouble! Okay, so them being undead had been something of a giveaway. On second though, maybe he should just leave the whole instinct thing to the Slayers.

The knock on the door nearly startled him out of his chair. De door opened showing a slightly nervous Perry, which was no surprise since Perry was pretty much always nervous.

"Eh... Xander, s-sister Agnes is here to s-s-see you."

"Damnit!" Xander exclaimed. Another problem. Sister Agnes didn't know about the supernatural, well other than God and Angels anyway. She was the legal guardian of Sera, his favourite student, and probably here to 'inspect' the school. It was a good thing that standard policy was to keep everything supernatural restricted to the gym and 'chemistry' lab D.

"Watch you mouth, young man!" came the authoritative voice of the nun and head of the st. Peters Orphanage as she stept through the doorway. "Had you been one of my children, I'd have you eat soap!"

Personally Xander thought 'Dammit' was pretty mellow considering the circumstances. Actually 'dammit' was pretty much mellow in any circumstances unless you were a priest or well...a nun.

"Sorry Ma'am. It's just been a rough day...well week...or maybe life."

Sister Agnes softened at his explanation. "Well, mind your language in the future and the lord may forgive you."

"I will try." He promised. "Anyway, welcome to _shule ya wakingaji_. Also known as not-quite-Waikiki by most of the girls. This is the principal's office, which would make me Principal Xander at your service."

At the sight of Agnes' unamused frown Xander realized this was going to be an even longer day than he had initially expected.

* * *

"Sister Agnes!" Sera squealed in delight and ran towards her for a warm embrace. She had learned to be more careful with her strength in the past few weeks so that her 'victim', as Xander only half-jokingly called people who were on the receiving end of Slayer-hugs, didn't even grunt this time.

A moment later Sister Agnes held her at arms length and smiled. "It's good to see that you are well, my dear."

Sera beamed a smile back. "I'm glad to see you too, Sister Agnes." And she was. Even if Sister Agnes tended to be a little strict about almost everything, she was always there for her when Sera needed help. Help that Sister Agnes couldn't give when she was on the other side of the continent. True, there were people here at the school who she could ask for help, but it just wasn't the same. Agnes was sort of her mother after all.

Agnes smiled at the sight of her oldest charge. The young girl seemed to glow from the happiness and energy that she projected. Agnes had been becoming increasingly worried in these past few weeks, unsure of whether sending her to this unknown school had been a good idea. Now much of that worry was gone. Seeing Sera talking about her new friends and smiling so easily warmed her heart.

At home Sera had become isolated, especially her last few months at the orphanage. She had had few friends and barely talked to anyone at all. Agnes had known something was wrong. Her charge had been increasingly angry and irritated and had taken that anger out on furniture, claiming afterwards that it had been an accident. Agnes would have believed her claims if they had been anywhere near plausible, but the fact remained that solid wooden doors didn't just break on accident. In fact, it was difficult enough to break them on purpose. She sighed inwardly as she reminded herself she still needed to find the funds to replace the kitchen door.

At least Sera hadn't gotten in any trouble here at the Wakingaji school. Though, she had to admit that this school was a little strange. Medieval weapons were on display everywhere. This was on par with the name of the school, as Wakingaji was Swahili for 'Protectors' or 'Defenders'. But all these sharp objects within reach of the children wasn't what she would call a safe learning environment. She also noted that most of the other children here were at least 4 years older than Sera and each one of them would be considered beautiful by most standards. It made her a little suspicious about how these girls were being selected.

Sister Agnes wasn't finished here. She had to make sure it was alright for Sera to stay here, and she had a couple of days to find out before she would have to return to the orphanage.

* * *

Willow was once again sitting in her 'witchy garden of peace'. Her eyes were closed and her legs crossed in the standard meditating position. This time she wasn't trying to focus for a spell or magical control. This time she was trying to step away from her thoughts and feeling in order to try and figure out why she was having so much trouble controlling herself.

It was something she had learned in Westbury after she nearly destroyed the world. It had taken months before her first accomplishment in that area, and it was possibly the most difficult form of meditation she had ever tried, but it had helped her control a lot. It was about knowing yourself, exploring weaknesses and strengths and possibly altering them. Often just knowing the weakness or strength changed it. Awareness was half the cure.

It wasn't working though. Her thoughts and emotions kept ripping through her like bullets, shattering any peace from her mind. Every time she closed her eyes one of the worst memories in her life flashed before her: The bloody shirt of Tara, Oz leaving, The magical draining of Rack, Learning Jessie's fate, Getting picked upon by Cordelia, Buffy jumping of the tower. There were so many more of them and everyday they were becoming more and more detailed and horrific. She couldn't help thinking about them no matter how hard she tried.

Instead she tried to think of good times: The many happy days she had with Tara and Oz, Her old friendship with Xander and Jessie. Those memories were increasingly difficult to access, even the recent ones.

A couple of weeks ago Xander had taken her to the Zoo, well at least he had wanted to. He had driven her to Nairobi, a 3 hour trip. Every major city in the US had a Zoo, often more than one, but all the Capital city of Kenya had was a small snake park consisting of reptiles. Willow wasn't a fan of a reptiles, they were all slithery and slimy, like frogs. Sticking their forked tongues out every few seconds as they looked at her with unblinking eyes. Okay so frogs didn't have forked tongues, but the way they blew up their cheeks so far they looked like they could explode at any moment. She shivered just thinking about them. It was a very uncomfortable hour in the snake park.

It wasn't all bad, though. After the snake park they went into the city trying to find the ice-cream stand with the best ice by testing them all. They talked and laughed about old times. But everytime she tried to think about that, the snake park came to her mind instead.

Then the were the nightmares. Every night Willow had one, most of them about Tara. It had gotten to the point that she was afraid to fall asleep. The worst part was waking up with noone to comfort her. She kept wishing she hadn't broken up with Kennedy, even if their relationship wasn't much more than physical. At least Kennedy used to be with her every morning. These days she felt so alone, especially now that she wasn't allowed at the Slayer school anymore.

She was beginning to wonder why she had come here to Xander in the first place, all she was to him was a distraction from the work he should be doing.

* * *

Xander watched her lying on the bed, staring at the wall lifelessly. He hated to see her this way; so helpless and broken. She had been like this ever since Tara's death. It wasn't constant. Sometimes she was okay, 'okay' being a very relative term here. When Kennedy had come into the picture she was okay most of the time, but she was never really happy anymore. There were only the moments where she forgot her sadness, that was the happiest he ever saw her. After Kennedy she got back to grieving, but at the same time that grieving seemed somehow better than when she was with Kennedy being okay. But now it was bad again, almost as bad as the days after her rampage. .

When she came here to Africa he had made it his job to make her smile a true smile. Even if it was just once. It was the only thing that seemed worthwhile after Anya's death.

He didn't remember much of the months after they left behind the Sunnydale crater. All he remembered was being in a daze for most of the time, unable to sleep, yet too tired to do anything. Then Giles asked him to oversee the training of Slayers here in Africa, and just the idea of having some kind of purpose made him jump at the opportunity. Right now he was beginning to regret that jump.

He wasn't really cut out to be head of this Slayer school. He hated all the paperwork involved and didn't even know what half of the documents he had signed were about. Then there was the whole Watcher Council politics. Why couldn't they just forget about all the rules and policies, and train Slayers and slay demons instead? That was what it was all about wasn't it? Protecting the earth, the Slayers. At least, it wasn't about who was in control of what department and who made the final decisions.

His firsts months here he hadn't even considered whether this was what he wanted in his life. He had just put his brain on automatic and did what was expected of him. Then Willow knocked on his door and everything changed.

She had broken up with Kennedy and came to him for comfort. Not Giles, not Buffy, _him_. He had wanted to give her that comfort for nearly two years, but he never knew how. He hadn't had a clue as to what she had been going through. And then there was the added problem of their dwindling friendship. He and Willow hadn't been good friends in a long while. High school had torn them apart and while they were still friends after that experience, they weren't close anymore.

When she came to him, he saw the opportunity to reconnect with her. She had wordlessly asked him for help, comfort. And it was his duty as a friend to do everything in his power to help her. But he was failing.

For a while she had seemed to get better. Her motions became lighter, her smiles more frequent and genuine, but it didn't last. Now he had no idea what to do.

Whenever he saw her meditate during the day, his left eye socket ached just watching her. He never knew whether he should hold her or let her meditate in the hope that she would find some peace that way. When he saw her trying to get to sleep all he wanted to do was hold her and make everything go away. But he was afraid. Afraid of doing the wrong thing. Despite all the time they had spent together, watching movies, talk, play boardgames, their friendship still wasn't at that kind of comfort level.

He was beginning to wonder if they'd ever be able to reach that level. And if it was possible, then how would they go about doing that? This whole friendship thing had been so much easier when they were younger. Now there was all this stuff looming over them. Things they had once said to each other. Secrets they had kept from each other. Tons of regrets. Even if they were able to restore their friendship, would it be in time?

Willow was getting worse everyday. He didn't understand what was happening to her, but he felt he had to do something. She had come to him for help, if he couldn't help his best friend then what kind of friend was he? If he couldn't help her, then he was as useless as his father had always said he was. His biggest accomplishments in life had gone down the sinkhole with the rest of Sunnydale. He wasn't a foreman anymore, he couldn't get a construction job with the lack of his left eye. He didn't like his current job. His ex-fiancée was dead. He didn't have a girlfriend. He was a lousy friend to Willow and Buffy.

He stopped his self-reproach. The old Willow would have chided him for doubting himself and told him with no uncertainty that he wasn't useless to her. The way she saw him had always meant the world to him and it still did.

With new determination he stepped into Willow's room. He had promised himself that he'd do anything he could to help her out. While what he was about to do might not work, he had to at least try.

Xander lay himself next to her on the bed and put an arm around her. He noted in relief that she curled up against him and buried her left cheek in his chest. Maybe they had restored more of their friendship than he had thought. It didn't matter. All he cared about was lessening Willow's pain, because her pain was partly his.


	11. The end of school

Another year, another chapter. Uhm...I really hope I'm not going to continue that trend. I'm not planning to anyway, but plans aren't always executed as planned. I'm aiming to add another chapter in a month or so.

Enjoy.

**Chapter 11: The end of school**

In his dank underground office he was once again reading the chronicles of the Elgon Beast. He almost knew the text by heart so it was just about passing the time. Mostly he was just trying to remind himself why he was going through such lengths to revive the creature. Working with vampires required almost more patience than he had, but it was the fasted way to achieve his goal, and time was of the essence.

Fortunately the excavation seemed to be nearing its end. He could feel the magic that bound the creature becoming more and more vivid by the day. Soon they would free it from its prison and transport it to his home-dimension. Hopefully they'd be able to evade the local slayers long enough to prevent their interference.

"Sir, general, sir!"

General Flavius Aetius sighed. Dalton disturbing him in his private quarters was never a good sign.

"Yes?" he asked, already dreading the vampire's reply.

"Mard has requested an audience with you, General."

Flavius frowned. Mard was one of the special operatives from his army in his home dimension. A powerful mage, who he had assigned to keep the witch that supported the Slayer army nearby occupied.

"Let him in."

"Mard, do you have anything to report?"

"Yes General. The witch has broken the spell. Despite her appearances, her will is strong. And while she has had some setbacks, she is not completely out of the equation, especially where their General is concerned. There's little else I can do to distract her, without exposing us."

"Very well." The General returned, knowing that his mage had done all he could. "What is your assessment of her power?"

"There's little I can tell you about her powers, except that they are substantial. It is however, her fear of magic and, to a lesser extent, her lack of knowledge that limits her powers to something manageable."

"Thank you, Mard. Dismissed."

* * *

Xander watched her eat breakfast in fascination. He had no trouble believing that that amount of food could be processed by such a small girl, after all he saw countless skinny teenage girls work through thrice that amount of food every meal. He had no idea as to how those girls did it, it was suffice to know that they could. But this was Willow he was watching. The last time he had seen her eat like that was one of the mornings they had spent at Buffy's house devouring Joyce's pancakes.

Sure, he wasn't the greatest cook around, but when it came to quick and easy breakfasts he had plenty of experience. But it wasn't the cooking that had set her off into trashcan-mode.

Something had changed last night. She was… well not happy exactly, but she seemed optimistic. As if something good could happen at any moment. It had been a while since he had last seen her like that.

Willow looked up at him, a question on her face and jaws working overtime to chop down the mouthful of bread and eggs enough for her to speak. Xander knew what the question was, but he decided to savor the moment and watch the rare sight of Willow's bulging cheeks.

"What?"

He pretended to grimace, which was pretty difficult while looking at the cute flushed expression on her face. He proceeded to look at his own empty plate. She followed his gaze and opened her mouth in realization.

"Oh, I'm sorry I thought you had more." She looked guiltily at the remains of her plate, which still contained two double sandwiches, one with bacon and the other with egg."You can have the rest if you want." She said, some reluctance escaping her voice.

He smiled at her concern. They used to share food all the time... well usually Willow shared her food with him. Though, at High school they often switched their lunches. To Willow it was her chance to escape from the health-food her parents always prepared her. Xander benefited by having one meal a day that didn't consist solely of snacks or take-out.

"No, don't worry. I'll just grab something extra at lunch..." He grinned. ", and my pre-lunch snack, post-lunch snack, dinner, post dinner snack and of course late night movie snack."

"God, Xander you have more meals than a Hobbit!"

"Actually I have just as many meals as a Hobbit, I thought they had the right idea. How anyone can survive the day with only three meals boggles my mind."

She smiled back.

"So... are you going to be okay?" he asked carefully.

"If you're asking if I'm going to cry all over the couch as soon as you leave the house, then no, your couch is safe from me. I'm not going to lie and say that I'm fine, because I'm not. But I feel better and that's a start."

* * *

Willow finished up her work on the kitchen, putting away the last of the dishes. She had been doing all sorts of household jobs during the day. Cleaning, washing, re-decorating, shopping for real food. Xander had been neglecting the house a little bit lately; possibly ever since he got here. His living standards hadn't been particularly high after he and Anya broke up. Willow wondered how she hadn't noticed this before and decided it was probably because she'd been preoccupied with her own problems. Nevertheless she vowed to drill some cleanliness in her best friend. She didn't want to play housemaid for him all the time.

It was a great day today. Everything that had happened lately: being forced out of the council, fired from her teaching job had lifted a weight from her shoulders. It had given her some time to deal with her personal issues. She did miss her students though: Nosy Pauline who asked questions nearly non-stop, Shy Erika who often needed a bit of personal encouragement to get going, and Sera, the youngest, who was silent most of the time but had some surprisingly brilliant questions once in a while.

In Sunnydale, when she taught miss Calender's computer classes, she had to deal with so many students that she could barely keep up with who was who. And with a new class every hour or so, she couldn't really help every student personally. In Wakingaji she just had one class of 7 students, to whom she taught several subjects.

The afternoon was ending when there was knocking on the door. When Willow opened the door she was very surprised to see a quartet of her former students on the other side of the door.

"Hey, miss Rosenburg." The youngest spoke.

"Sera, hi." Willow returned. "Xander is still at the school, I'm not expecting him for another two hours."

"We not here for mistah Harris." explained one of the other girls, Jelani, in a heavy Swahili accent.

The others shook their heads in agreement.

"We were wondering if you could teach us about pitagurus."

"Pythagoras." Willow corrected automatically, then frowned "But you're not supposed to learn Pythagoras until later."

"Mistah Travers say we ah behind."

"Why don't you ask about the Pythagoras theorem?"

"We did." With that Sera showed her notebook on which the theorem had indeed been explained, but in very mathematical terms.

For a moment Willow debated with herself what to do. On the one hand she wasn't supposed to be teaching them, that was the job of the school. And she realized that Travers was used to teaching the older girls who already had most of the basic skills. Willow's former class, however, consisted of the youngest slayers. He just needed some more experience with them, maybe some pointers.

On the other hand, tutoring someone wasn't against the law or anything. She could just help out until Travers got his act together.

She smiled and gestured the girls to come inside.

* * *

Despite being in the principal's seat, Xander distinctly felt like he was sitting at the other side of the desk. Maybe because of the strict demeanor of the woman in front of them, or maybe because of the stories he'd heard from Sera about Sister Agnes.

From what Sera had told him, Sister Agnes was very much like the nun stereotype Hollywood loved so much. She was fierce, intolerant of scruffiness, and downright scary when angry. She did not shy away from physical punishments to unruly children. And although he doubted very much that she would physically punish a grown adult who wasn't even under her care, he couldn't help but feel a bit nervous about the ruler that he had left on her side of the desk.

He didn't even know why he had a ruler. It wasn't like he actually used it. He just played with it when he was bored or trying to think.

"Mr. Harris, I have decided to take Sera back home."

Xander gritted his teeth and nodded. He had expected something like this ever since she had walked inside.

"May I ask why?" he returned politely. He didn't particularly feel like being polite, but he didn't think yelling at her that she was an idiot would help changing her mind.

"I will not pretend that her stay here hasn't eased quite a burden for us. I will also not pretend that we will not miss the sizeable donations from your organization. Most of all I regret that I will have to take Sera away from the new friends she has made. However, I cannot in good conscience allow her to be thought at a school where lies and deceit are condoned and even practiced by the staff."

"We don't…" Xander started, but he was quickly interrupted

"What does the WCI _really_ do?"

He remained silent.

Sister Agnes stood up. "Then we're finished here. I will give Sera until the end of the weekend to say goodbye to her friends. We will leave Sunday afternoon." With that she headed for the door.

"We fight demons." Xander called out before she stepped through.

"Do not mock my religion, Mr. Harris." Sister Agnes returned angrily.

"We fight demons, mostly vampires because they're most common. The girls who are being thought here are Slayers, they're stronger and better fighters than any other human on the planet. Besides giving them a basic education, we train them to defend themselves."

"Why should I believe you?"

"I can arrange a demonstration; most of the girls are strong enough to lift a small car."

She seemed to think about it for a moment. "That won't be necessary. I appreciate that you told me this, however this changes nothing. Goodbye Mr. Harris."

He stared in the direction of the door as it closed, wondering when this situation had gone wrong. Should he have told Sister Agnes about everything when they first met? _'Hey we'd like to take Sera with us to teach her some awesome martial art moves, so that she can spend the rest of her life fighting monsters.'_

Somehow, he doubted that would have gone much better. He wondered what _he _would have done in her place and came to the conclusion that he probably wouldn't have taken all this nearly as well.

* * *

The next few weeks were uneventful. Sera had left. She hadn't gone quietly, but she caved when Xander sided with Sister Agnes.

They still hadn't been able to figure out where the vampires in Kisumu were coming from. The bloodsuckers seemed to appear and disappear at regular intervals, and they probably were.

The watchers had finished their research on the spell that was supposed to figure out where the purple portals were leading to, but the chance that the necessary circumstances for the spell would occur were still minuscule.

On a more positive note, Willow's mood had improved dramatically. Xander even heard her humming occasionally.

She spend most of her time tutoring her former students after school hours and reading books about magic, though curiously Xander hadn't smelled any of the burned herbs or molten candles that usually came with magic research and spell-casting.

Willow and Xander also had been spending more time together. They usually talked in front of the TV in the evenings, only half watching the movies that they had seen a thousand times anyway. More than once they woke up on the couch snuggled up together.

One morning Xander came into the school a little earlier than usual, courtesy of the incredible smell of Willow's waffles. He walked through the lobby when he noticed something on the floor. He stopped and looked more carefully, but there was nothing there. Suddenly he realized he hadn't seen it, but he had sensed it with his crystal eye. Even after three months he didn't often understand what he was sensing, but he knew this wasn't something good.

Quickly he turned to Meko who was on duty at the reception. "Sound the alarm. Get everyone out of the building!"

Meko nodded went about doing the task at hand. Xander still felt a little unnerved when people followed his orders without question, and Meko was one of those who never even seemed to think about going against orders.

Then he turned and ran for the stairs; what he had sensed wasn't on the floor, it was in the basement. He carefully walked down the stairs to the cellar, and flipped the light switch when he reached the end. The light flickered on a few times and died in an instant later.

"Going into a dark, scary basement by myself. Oh no, that's not stupid at all." He mumbled quietly to himself as he took a stake from his side pocket and continued towards the source of the weird sensation he was feeling.

"Xander."

He let out a high pitched yell and threw his stake towards the source of the voice.

"Calm down! It's me."

Xander let out the breath he was holding and replied. "Marsha, geez. Why do you slayers always need to be so sneaky? Next time stomp or something."

She handed him the back stake, which she had apparently caught in mid-air. "Nice reflexes, sloppy aim." Her inner martial arts instructor remarked.

"Well, what do you want from me? It's pitch-black in here."

"What are you doing in the basement anyway?"

"There's something in here." He explained.

"A demon?"

"I don't know." He turned back towards the sensation. It seemed familiar somehow, but he couldn't place it. "It's not moving whatever it is."

They stopped at the door of the boiler room. Xander opened the door and peeked inside. The room was dark except for a small red light. He also heard a soft rythmic beeping sound, and a feeling of dread washed over him as he recognized it.

He slammed the door closed and turned to Marsha.

"Run!"

* * *

Half an hour after the school had been evacuated, a crowd watched the building in suspense, though most of them weren't sure what was going on. The local police force had confined the immediate area around the school.

"Couldn't you have checked the amount of time left?" Willow asked.

"Hey, I was busy panicking alright?" Xander returned defensively, but he felt stupid about his reaction when he realized there had been no trace of accusation in her voice. She was just anxious like everyone else.

He put an arm around her and pulled her close and together they watched Wakingaji explode into rubble.

"We shouldn't be allowed in schools anymore." He remarked.

"Hey, it's not our fault they tend to go kaboom around us." Willow returned. "Except, you know, when it _is_ our fault." She added as an afterthought.


	12. Visitors

**Chapter 12: Visitor**

It had taken her a full hour to find the house, thanks to the distinct lack of signs, pronounceable street names and decent cell-phone reception. In that hour she had: fought off two muggers, learned some Swahiliesian words that she suspected to be less than polite, walked through the whole town twice, and turned her map into a ripped piece of crumple.

Actually she wasn't sure this was the right house, but it looked promising so far; it was after all the only house she had seen with a brand new door. Doors and windows were the most fragile parts of houses… that is, of houses which magical evil-fighting people lived. So, she had a good feeling about this one.

She took another look at what was left of the map, wondering once more whether Giles had given her the map of some other African town. Then she crumpled it into a ball, stuffed it in her backpack, and nervously stepped towards the shiny wooden door.

She hadn't seen them in almost a year. Sure there were e-mails and phone calls, but she had spent seven years seeing them pretty much daily before that. It was like she had been mailing and calling a different set of friends, friends without faces, limbs, or other body parts. Today she was going to meet up with the old friends.

After some knocking, the door opened to reveal a cheery redheaded woman. Surprise, recognition, astonishment all flashed across the woman's face, and soon Buffy was enveloped in a warm and firm hug.

"Buffy! I can't believe you're here! When did you get here? Why didn't you tell me you were coming? Do you want to come in?" Willow asked enthusiastically.

"Just today, I wanted to surprise you, and yes please." She answered back brightly, her nervousness completely forgotten.

* * *

The rest of the day was easily spent gossiping about subjects ranging from Giles' new 'automobile' to the currently impending apocalypses around the world.

Buffy learned that Oz was in town with his new girlfriend, and more importantly that Willow felt a bit of jealousy there, even though she claimed to be happy for him and totally okay with it.

Buffy in turn told Willow about her romance with Mortimer 'The Immortal' Moretti. Of course, she didn't take kindly when she found out Morty slept with other women. Needless to say they weren't an item anymore. Willow offered to curse him, but the Slayer declined on the grounds of having given him a pretty shiner herself.

"Don't tell Xander, okay?"

"Why not?"

Buffy sighed. "I just don't want to give him more ammo for his jokes about my taste in men."

"As opposed to us teasing him about his attraction to demonesses?"

"That's nothing like…his dates are always…It's not my fault that I…" She glowered at Willow and then gave in. "Just do it for me, please."

"Okay, I won't tell him." Willow agreed. "But if he asks, I'm not going to lie." She added firmly.

Buffy nodded, acknowledging that this was as far as Willow was willing to go on this matter. "Thanks." She added, but it turned out she'd thanked Willow too soon.

"And I don't think you should not tell him." Willow told her. "I mean he-he's your friend, and friends shouldn't lie to each other. And…okay this isn't exactly lying, but it's almost lying and that's just as bad as lying because not telling him stuff is how it starts and soon you'll stop talking to him for weeks because you're afraid those not-lies are going to come out and the next time you'll talk, lies will come out instead and you'll feel even more guilty, which causes you to keep avoiding him until you become nothing more than strangers to one another."

Buffy sat there in stunned silence at the sadness directed to her. Then she noticed that Willow wasn't looking at her, but at the ground. "Are we still talking about me?"

Willow grimaced. "I might have been channeling some of my big old inner haul-truck load of guilt."

Buffy sagged back into the couch and sighed. "Our lives are screwed up, aren't they?"

Willow nodded in agreement. "I think it's getting better though." She added earnestly.

Buffy looked back at her in horror. "Do you want something bad to happen!"

The witch's eyes went wide. "No, I didn't mean it in a jinxy kind of way! It's just with all those Slayers, Watchers and witches around, we aren't all that stands between the earth and it being sucked into eternal darkness anymore."

"It's a nice change of pace." Buffy admitted. "You know, aside from the whole bored to death part."

Willow frowned. "I thought you were happy taking a break from fighting evil?"

"I was totally happy… the first three months. Now, I'm just itching for a challenge. Patrolling isn't fun anymore. With all those other Slayers around there aren't many vampires left. And whenever I do manage to find one, I barely have to do anything to kill it."

Buffy's pout was met with a genuine look of sympathy.

"One time there was this vamp coming at me, he stumbled, fell onto a root sticking out of the ground and went poof. I didn't even get to throw a pun at him."

"Poor Buffy." Willow said earnestly, and patted her arm in comfort.

* * *

They heard the front door open and a few seconds later Xander was standing in the living room, looking at Buffy in confusion like she was some kind of stranger he had never met.

Buffy swallowed as he continued to just stand there. She hadn't had as much contact with Xander as with Willow, but still she expected him to at least recognize her vaguely.

"Hey." Buffy greeted him and added a little wave of her hand.

He shook his head as if shaking off some kind of illusion. Then returned her "Hey." and raised a warm smile.

Suffice to say that the next few moments were filled with hugs, smiles and misty eyes.

"So, how are you doing? How's Dawn doing?" Xander asked.

She was about to reply that everything was fine, when the second part of the question registered with her. She slowly turned to Willow and saw her own confusion mirrored in her best friend.

"Who's Dawn?"

Xander frowned. "I don't know." He confessed. "You don't know anyone named Dawn? A friend? I could swear you have a friend named Dawn."

When both she and Willow shook their heads, he shrugged and enveloped the both of them into another hug. Any thoughts about a girl named Dawn were soon forgotten. The three friends were back together, everything was right with the world.

* * *

The demon was magnificent. Eighty feet long, armored scales that could withstand the fires of hell, claws that could tear through stone, and two immense bat-like wings. For now the creature lay there dormant and cast in stone, but soon it would be time to free it from its magical bonds.

* * *

"I missed this."

"Ah yes, nothing beats walking through a graveyard, inventing new inventive ways to pass the time, just so you can prevent your brains from leaking out of your ears of boredom." Xander agreed as he expertly circumnavigated another tombstone.

"I don't mean patrolling. I mean patrolling _with_ someone."

"Don't forget my eternal shadows." Xander referred bitterly to the squad of Slayers who followed him everywhere ever since yet another demon tried to kill him. "Yeah, you know who you are!" he called out to nowhere in particular. "I know you're out there! I told you I don't need any Slayers protecting me tonight!"

He turned to Buffy uncertainly. "They are still out there, right?"

"Someone's a little testy." Buffy smirked.

"Wait until they start following you around 'for your own good', see how you like it." he grumbled.

"Oh they tried, but they just don't make Slayers like they used to." She smiled as she twirled the stake in her hand. "So, how are things going around here, Mr. big bossman." Buffy asked.

"O just handy dandy, you know: our headquarters has been blown to tiny peaces, a dark power is rising, the teenage girl bathroom rebellions are in full effect; the usual." Xander shrugged.

"You're taking it pretty well, considering."

"Believe me, Giles and I are going to have a serious talk about job recommendations when this is all over." He shook his head. "I can't believe I thought leading a bunch of teenage girls would be fun."

"I know what you mean." Buffy grimaced as she remembered the disastrous year they had when fighting against The First.

"Yeah I guess you do."

The awkward silence that followed eventually got broken by Buffy, who decided to move to happier subjects.

"Too bad Willow isn't here. Did you get why she couldn't come?"

"Beats me." Xander Shrugged. "But, you know witches. They'll pick any excuse to chant chants, spell spells, and dance together naked around a bunch of stones."

Buffy smiled at the twinkle in Xander's eye. One he seemed to get everytime he talked about a certain redheaded witch. "You and Willow seem a lot chummier these days."

"Are you calling us fat?" he returned with mock indignity.

Buffy just rolled her eyes at the question.

He gave her small smile. "Yeah, I guess we are a little chummier. You know, I never really thought me and Willow would be the kind of friends who grow apart after high school, but we did. We've been trying to fix that. It was a bit weird at first, you know, but things are picking up. "

"That's great." Buffy replied, though not as enthusiastically as she wanted to.

Another awkward silence interrupted their conversation.

"You think…" Buffy started, but then her courage fell and she changed her mind.

"What?"

"It's nothing. Never mind."

Xander looked back skeptically, but he didn't press. Once up on a time, Buffy knew, he would have tried to drag it out of her until she threatened him with grievous bodily harm or tickle attacks. She wanted him to do that right now, but he didn't. Not because of some noble gesture to allow her some privacy, but for fear of breaking their strained friendship.

She wondered if Willow was right. Would they just keep on avoiding all the more precarious subjects, until all they could talk about was mundane things like the weather, work, and the behavior of youngsters these days? The things you talked about with strangers? Would their friendship just fade away?

Maybe, but she wasn't just going to let it happen without a fight.

"You think maybe we could try that reconnecting thing you and Willow have going on?

* * *

Xander and Buffy soon ended up back at Xander's little home. It turned out Willow was just watching TV, while reading a few books; nothing witchy at all.

"Oh, hey guys." Willow smiled. "had a nice patrol?"

Before either of them could answer that they hadn't come across a single demon Willow added: "Oh by the way, Giles called. We're supposed to meet him at the new HQ. He says they've found something."

"Giles is here too?" Xander asked, he turned to Buffy. "You didn't bring Andrew with you as well, did you?"

The headshake earned her a heartfelt "Halleluja!" from Xander.

* * *

"So, what's up, oh mighty leader."

"Ah, Xander, yes." Giles answered, and exercised his his well-honed skill of ignoring his attempts at humor. " I believe we may have encountered a stroke of good luck. Although, I'm not quite sure what it is exactly. I-It seems that Mr. Perry has used some kind of tracking device to locate the other end of the portal. A a PDI I believe he called it. Uh, perhaps you can explain the situation, Perry."

"Oh, uh, okay. I, uh, I accidentally dropped my PDA into the portal. I had my collection of … uh... collection of stuff on there, so I was a bit disappointed that it was gone. Then I realized the PDA was still on, and we could find it using GPS."

"Wait, you know the location of the vampire base?" Willow asked, depriving Xander and Buffy from the satisfaction of deciphering Perry's explanation themselves. For which they were very grateful, by the way.

"Uh, Yes."

"See," Xander grinned. "I told you we needed more nerds on the council." He turned to Perry. "No, offense."

"Uh, yes, quite. However, we still do not know what we are dealing with, so I-I took the liberty of calling for some reinforcements. They should arrive by tomorrow morning."

It was Buffy who, with dread, noticed a slight hesitation in Giles' voice. "Reinforcements? What kind of reinforcements?"

**Author's note:**

I found this chapter on my hard disk and I realized it wasn't as bad as I thought it was when I wrote it, so I thought 'why not'? Also I feel the urge to write some more, so maybe this won't be the last one. I wouldn't recommend holding your breath for more though. My writing urges are rather sporadic these days.


End file.
